Epic Crossover Event: Max Ride and Percy Jackson
by PurifiedDrinkingWater
Summary: Insert really good summary that makes you want to read this fanfiction here. Written before The Lost Hero and Angel.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Disclaimer. Seeing as I don't want to go to jail anytime in my future, I'll say it quickly so you can read the story. -Halfblood.**

**Beta'd by Shopgirl152**

I'd been waiting for today a long time. I never thought I'd be this excited to see Annabeth. I was driving my new, used 68' Ford truck. It was classy and broke down a lot, but it was mine. Now I was headed to Annabeth's boarding school; we had a date planned for the first day of summer. I was running way early, so I stopped by Greg's Flowers and got Annabeth a small rose clipping.

When I got to her school there were a bunch of girls waiting outside. Of course, none of them were Annabeth, so I had to go _inside _a boarding school of _all _girls. How embarrassing. Some of the girls,' stared at me and started whispering to their friends. I hoped they were commenting on how good I looked, but I highly doubted that because all the girls at my school think I look dorky. Of course these girls didn't get out much, so I had my chances.

I continued into the school until I stopped at the front desk. The place was pretty big. The desk was a semi-circle with plants on the corners, and a heavy set lady with one of those phones you put on your ears. She put a finger up and told me to hold on as she took a phone call. She glanced at me a few times, giving me funny looks. They sent me a clear message that I was out of place here.

"May I help you…sir?" Her voice was so rough it almost reminded me of Clarisse, except with a really dry throat.

"Um, yes. I'm looking for Annabeth Chase," I said, as a girl walked up to the front desk and got a prescription of some kind from another woman in a nurse's coat.

"Annabeth is my roommate!" The girl said in a voice incredibly high and perky. "You must be Percy. She talks about you _all the time._" At the last three words, the perkiness in her voice went down into a long drone. The girl stuck out her hand. "I'm Christa!" She almost yelled, as the secretary put a finger to her mouth and told the girl to quiet down as she took another call. Why she wasn't helping me I didn't know.

I shook Christa's hand.

"Nice to meet you." I said, "I think"

"Huh?" Christa said. "Did you say something?" I looked down the hall; still no Annabeth.

"What? Oh, uh, no I didn't. Just talking to myself." I looked at the secretary's name badge; with my dyslexia it was hard to make out, but her name was Marge L. Cooper. Christa walked away and started talking to a group of friends. She glanced at me pointing with her finger slightly. Her friends all laughed hysterically. _Oh great, I really wished Annabeth would get here sooner. She was never late. What was the problem? _Marge got off the phone.

"May I help you… sir?" She said again looking over me with disgust.

"Yeah, I need to find Annabeth Chase."

"Are you her boyfriend? Or brother? We don't allow boyfriends." She stirred a coffee slowly, sipped it, then took another pack of sugar and poured it in. That made the choice easy for me.

"Brother," I said. "Percy Chase."

"Ok, her room number is 409B. Let me know if you find her; she's been gone all day. She didn't even check into the computer lab, which isn't like her at all. The staff here is worried about her." The phone rang again, and Marge answered it. She seemed like a nice secretary. A forgetful one, but nice. I jogged to the elevator and pressed the button and immediately it opened. The elevator let out a ding when I got to floor B.

When I got to room 409, I knocked. No answer.

"Annabeth, It's me Percy." I heard a noise in the room, and the door opened. It was Annabeth. She looked nice, even though she had on her normal pair of dark jeans, and her orange camp half-blood t-shirt. Her hair was neatly combed, and her face was clean. She had matured a lot since the last time I'd seen her.

"Percy!" She hugged me so hard I thought I might die. (Except for the fact I successfully toke a bath in the river Styx, so that wasn't possible). I hugged her back.

"I thought you said we were gonna' meet outside," I said taking her hand. A staff member walked by and I let go.

"Is something wrong Percy?" She asked.

"No, but the only way I could get past secretary was if I was your brother. And normal brothers don't hold their sister's hand. That would be weird…" She laughed. It was nice to hear after a long year without her.

"Hold on, I have to get my suitcase and I'll be right out." We were going to Camp Half-Blood after this so she had to bring her stuff. I stepped inside her room.

"I met your roommate, Christa." I said staring at how clean the room was.

"Really?"

"Yeah, she doesn't seem like the kinda person you'd enjoy being around." I admitted. Even though I regretted it after I said it.

"Not really. So I go to the computer lab a lot in my free time." She was packing some last minute items. The kinda things you don't pack until you're ready to leave.

"She told me you talk about me all the time." I remarked.

"Well… "I'm ready to go!" I took her hand and checked the hallway to make sure nobody was watching, then stepped outside. Annabeth followed me.

"So why weren't you waiting outside?" I pressed.

"I was, uh, busy packing." She wasn't one of those last minute packers, so it was kind of hard to believe.

"Really?" I asked. "Oh and I almost forgot." I took the rose out of my jacket pocket. It was a little smashed but Annabeth took it anyway.

"Percy! How sweet! I didn't get you anything…"

"It's ok, you didn't have too." She kissed me on the cheek. That made my day.

"No, I wasn't really packing. I was… uh, getting ready for… our date." I could imagine why she was embarrassed. She hardly ever 'got ready' for anything other than battle. I eagerly tried to change the subject.

"So how has it been here with all these girls, and no battle combat?"

"Like being in Aphrodite's cabin at camp for a whole year." She said. We got in the elevator, which had two other girls in it. I immediately let go of her hand so that I wouldn't be the creeper brother. She smiled at me. We didn't talk the whole way down. The girls behind us started giggling and staring at me. Annabeth turned around but I whispered for her to ignore them. We then realized the elevator was going up.

"Geez" Annabeth murmured. At least the girls had stopped giggling. They both had brown hair, brown eyes, and were the same height. I figured they were twins. One stepped up next to me, slightly pushing in-between me and Annabeth.

"Hey, I'm Susan," she said, batting her eyelashes at me. She reminded me of Kelli the _empusa. _Which sent up flares in my mind. I put my hand on Riptide in case she burst into flames or something. Annabeth looked at me sternly, kinda like one of those warnings girls send you when they're getting annoyed with the fact you're talking to another girl.

"Hi…" I said and scooted away toward the wall of the elevator.

"I'm Samantha." The other girl pulled up on the other side of me. Now I was a little freaked out. The elevator stopped at level E and they pressed the close door button. Which made me want to get out.

"Wasn't that your stop?" I asked.

"Not anymore," Samantha said and grabbed my upper arm. "Wow, you're really buff." She squeezed my arm, and I pulled away and backed up to the back of the elevator where Annabeth was staring daggers at me. I put my hand on her suitcase. She brushed it off. She got jealous pretty easy I suppose. Maybe that was a good thing. I then realized the elevator wasn't moving. The twins turned around to face us.

"Annabeth, where's this incredible Percy Jackson you won't stop bragging about? Did he find someone new? Your brother's a hunk." Susan winked at me and continued. "I bet you lied about the whole -"

"Shut up!" I yelled. Annabeth stared at me like I was a complete moron. Why wasn't she defending herself? She was never this shy and torn down so easily. She stared at the floor. I was kinda shocked.

"For your information, my name is Percy Jackson, and I'm not Annabeth's brother. I just said that so I could get past the secretary!" The girls looked shocked.

"You're just trying to stick up for your little sister! If you really are Percy, then prove it!" I turned to Annabeth; she was looking at me in complete disbelief. I tilted her head up to mine and kissed her on the lips.

"Oh my gosh! Wait until I tell Principal Figgans! She'll probably expel you Annabeth! But, I won't even mention it if you kissed me too…"

"No way!" I said. The elevator started to move down; someone must have been waiting for it below us.

"Then Annabeth is expelled!" Samantha replied. I glanced at Annabeth, who was now a bit shorter than me. I guess I hadn't noticed that until I kissed her, since I had to tilt her head up to reach mine. She looked at me; she looked sad, mad, and nervous all at the same time. I picked up Samantha's hand and kissed it, then did the same for Susan. They both looked at me dreamily and laid their backs on the elevator door. It opened and they fell back onto the floor.

"Thanks Percy Jackson!" They both called and waved loutishly. Annabeth ran out of the elevator. I ran after her. Why was she so out of character here? I ran into another girl who smiled at me. I tripped over a rug and saw the rose I had given Annabeth on the floor. I picked it up. "Annabeth!" She kept running.

I didn't catch up to her until I found her sitting on a bench out in the parking lot, under a big oak tree. Sitting down next to her, I noticed she was crying. She scooted away from me as I tried to put my arm around her shoulder.

"Annabeth," I said sympathetically.

"Don't Annabeth me! What were you thinking? That I wouldn't mind if you just kissed every girl who walked into an elevator? Well I do!"

"I didn't want you to be expelled! I thought you liked this school!"

"Well you thought wrong!" She started sobbing again.

"Why didn't you defend yourself? You just stood there and stared at the floor! I had to do something!" I was almost as mad as she was.

"I never said I was very popular at this school! Nobody likes me, only Christa! And I don't like her back! I'm not girly enough for everyone here!" She put her hands up and put quotations around the word girly.

I sat there, unable to say anything. Annabeth stopped crying. I put the rose on her knee. She looked at it. I thought she would brush it off, but she didn't, which was a relief since she probably hated my guts right now.

"I'm sorry." I said and wiped a tear off Annabeth's beautiful face. "I didn't know you felt that way. How about I make it up to you? We'll go where ever you want today; we won't even go to camp this afternoon. We'll go tonight."

"You can't just offer me stuff and think I won't be mad at you Seaweed Brain." Annabeth turned to look at me.

I smiled at her. "But we could give it a shot…" She shook her head and smiled. I wiped another tear away from her cheek. She took my hand, and I helped her up, grabbed her luggage and started toward my truck.

"How did you get here, Percy? I didn't know you had a car…"

"Oh, well my ride's real nice. It has one working window on the passenger side, but you can only enter it through the driver's side; the tires need to be pumped up every 5 hours; and the gas mileage sucks. But otherwise I love it." Annabeth laughed, and I helped her into the driver's side before climbing in after her. "Where too?" I asked. I turned and started to back up, but then I saw it. An _empusa_ no, _empusi. _As a matter of fact it was Susan and Samantha.

"I thought those didn't exist anymore since Lu-Kronos... died." Annabeth said; Luke was still a touchy subject. They were right behind my truck. I could probably run them over and make a run for it.

"What should we do Wise Girl?" I asked Annabeth.

"Get out of the truck and run." I figured out why she said this. The _empusi_ were smashing holes in my back tires. I struggled out the door.

"Use the passenger door, all it will do is fall off!" She shoved it open and to my surprise it didn't fall off. She slammed it shut and ran toward me, the door falling off. We ran, leaving Annabeth's suitcase behind. We made it to Central Park before we collapsed.

"I think we lost 'em." Annabeth said breathing hard. I rolled over next to her, and we stared at the clouds. We were both breathing hard, and lying on our backs. "Maybe we should go back to camp and tell Chiron about the _empusi." _She said.

"Only if you really want to." I didn't want to force Annabeth to do anything after kissing the _empusi's_ hands. Them being _empusi_ made it even more embarrassing. I sat up. "Let's take a walk first"

As we walked the paths, we saw some strange stuff. There was a kid sleeping in a tree, and did he have… wings? He had black hair and olive skin. We left him alone, considering he could be a new kind of monster. We saw a hot dog vender dressed as a hot dog, and a small dog next to him, also wearing a hot dog suit. We walked to the spot where Nico and I entered the Underworld last summer. It made me uncomfortable just thinking about it.

"Did you know you can enter the Underworld here?" Annabeth smirked at me. "Nico told me." She finished, and squeezed my hand.

"We weren't done!" A voice crackled behind us. We turned, and Susan and Samantha were behind us. They called out in ancient Greek.

"Ανοιχτό, μαύρο λάκκο!" Which means, "Open, black pit!" Annabeth and I started to run. A pit opened under us and Annabeth fell in, grabbing onto a tree root.

"Annabeth!" I yelled. I needed rope; she was too far down for me to reach her. I found a long, thick stick, and put it down towards her. It still wasn't long enough. She was slipping. I needed to help her. Something from the bottom of the pit bubbled and popped. Black liquid stained the walls. I didn't know what it was but I didn't want Annabeth to find out the hard way. She was sweating. Her knuckles were turning white.

"Percy…" She mumbled softly. Suddenly, something black swooped down and grabbed her. I thought it would drop her in but instead it swooped back up and grabbed me too. We flew way high over Central Park. I looked up at our captor. It was the kid we saw in the tree. He _did _have wings.

"What kind of monster are _you_?" Annabeth remarked.

"Monster?" The guy said. I figured he was about 15 years old. If monsters had ages.

"If you're not a monster, are you one of Zeus's Guardians?" I asked. It reminded me of Thalia, and that one time when the metal Guardians saved us from the skeleton warriors at Hoover Dam.

"Uh, no, not that either." I started to get nervous as we got higher. Since he _wasn't _Zeus's Guardians, Zeus would probably zap me out of the sky.

"Can we go back to the ground?" I asked. He began descending.

"What's your name?" Annabeth asked. Leave it to her to get to know _everyone_ we meet.

"Fang," he said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Percy POV**

Interesting name. We lowered toward the ground and he dropped us. He began to walk away.

"Thanks!" Annabeth called, "who are you, or better yet, _what_ are you?"

"I'm Avian-American." Fang said.

"What's that?" I asked. I looked at Annabeth and she shrugged.

"Part of a science experiment. Ran away with the… Flock" He stopped as he said "Flock" maybe this was a touchy subject for him.

"The what," Annabeth asked, "are their others like you?"

"Yeah, but I had to leave them. I was putting them in danger…" He looked toward the distance and began disappearing in the shadows until he was almost invisible. He moved and reappeared.

"How?" I asked

"I see monsters, and strange stuff that happens. I don't know why. And these things are way worse than what we've encountered. So Dyl… Dylan told me I was endangering the Flock, so I left Max. Well, and the rest of the Flock. But it was hardest to leave Max." Fang said dissolving onto the shadows again.

"How do you do that?" I asked

"It's part of the experiment, we mutate all the time." Fang came back into view, "what were you doing hanging in that pit with those creatures?" He looked at Annabeth and she squeezed my hand. He was kind of scary, he had dark eyes, hair, and clothes, his olive skin added a darkness.

"They were chasing us," I said. I suppose he deserved to know the truth about us. "You know the legend of the gods?" I said. He nodded. I told him about us.

"That's not possible" he told us.

"But it is." I said, "you want me to prove it?" I asked.

"Like you can." He remarked. I walked over to the nearest water fountain and Fang followed me. I put my hand toward the fountain. I willed the water to flow backwards up all the bowls that made the fountain. He stared in aw.

"I'm the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea."

"You're punking me. I'm really not in the mood for this." Fang said loosing his patience and amazement. "Science could do that." He said.

"You're right. But it would be near to impossible. Trust me I would know." Annabeth said. Fang looked at her and stared deeply, in the creepy way he'd been earlier. For some reason, she was the only one Fang did it to. He didn't do it to me. I needed to get his attention back.

"She's the daughter of Athena." I said, "the goddess of Wisdom."

"Do you have time?" I asked him.

"A lot, why?"

"Follow me." I said.

I took a drachma out of my pocket and got the best cab I knew of. The Fates Taxi. The concrete bubbled. A gray smoky taxi began to form out of the ground. The cab was the same one that I had rode to camp 4 years ago after exploding the gym with Tyson. Tyson would be coming back to camp this summer, I was excited to see him. The taxi was complete. I looked at I looked at Fang who was still a little in denial.

"Hop in." I said.

"I'll fly, just tell me were to go." Fang said.

"We can get there _a lot_ faster this way." I said.

"Doubt it. It's just a scientific cab," Fang remarked. What was wit this guy and science!

"Annabeth can prove you wrong, right Anna-" She was gone. "Annabeth!" I yelled "were is she?" I was panicking a lot inside. I had memorized her cell phone number so I ran to the nearest pay phone, Fang followed close behind.

"Help! Percy, help me!" Annabeth said in a panicked whisper.

"How did you know-" I began, but remembered there were more important things. "Where are you?"

"I'm, ugh, I'm in a bag, and while you were talking to Fang someone else with wings came and grabbed me." Her voice was even softer now. I heard someone say something about shutting up or they'd kick the bag. "His said his name was Dylan. He's a half blood, and part of whatever Fang is, you know, bird kid."

"Who are you talking to!" A voice shouted at the other end of the phone.

"I got to go." Annabeth said. "Help me." I hung up the phone and turned to Fang. I opened Riptide and put it to Fang's neck. Maybe he wouldn't know that celestial bronze didn't hurt mortals.

"One of you bird kids named Dylan has Annabeth."


	3. Chapter 3

Fang POV

**Dylan had taken Annabeth. I still love Max and all, but Annabeth was pretty. I could see why Percy liked her. She was smart too. Then again, these people also thought they were related to gods, and supposedly Annabeth was related to the goddess of wisdom, so she probably studied a lot to make that true. Unless, what they were say actually was true. But either way, this Percy kid had a sword to my throat, the sword had just appeared. Where do you get swords like that anyway? They could come in handy when fighting Flyboys or, if any were left, Erasers. **

"**What do you want me for?" I choked out. I was afraid he would run me through with his sword. I slowly expanded my wings and faded into the shadows.**

"**Were you creating a distraction to help him get her?" Percy said, stepping closer.**

"**I hate Dylan as much as you do, Percy. I'm not the bad guy. Now you can put the sword up and I can help you, or you can run me through and never get Annabeth back." I said stepping closer as Percy brought the sword down. Then he did something I never expected him to do. He slashed the sword right through my torso. But nothing happened. There wasn't a cut, or blood, not even a bruise.**

"**This sword is celestial bronze," he said, smiling. "It won't hurt mortals. Believe me about my world yet?" Percy asked me. Staring right into my eyes.**

"**Sort of." I said. "Now come with me."**

**I began to fly and Percy just stood there on the ground. I remembered he couldn't fly. **

"**I have a faster way to travel." Percy said staring up at me. I landed.**

"**And what's this way that could be faster?" I asked. Doubting what could possibly be faster than flying 100 MPH. **

"**Shadow travel, it's traveling through the shadows, but we have to do it now, while the sun is setting. And I have to go to camp first." Percy said.**

"**Camp?" I asked.**

"**Yes, it's were all heroes train for quests." Percy gave me a look of disbelief. Then he did yet another thing to surprise me. He willed the water in the fountain to make a mist. I saw a rainbow and Percy through a coin in it.**

"**Show me Nico di Angelo." An image appeared in the mist. It was a boy fighting skeleton warriors. He was in a dark area, with dead looking people walking around evasively. Sometimes the people's figures flickered. But all I could see was grass, and a bunch of people walking around like they had nothing to do.**

"**Nico!" Percy yelled at the picture and the boy turned to face us. The skeleton warriors collapsed as Nico clapped his hands.**

"**Hey, Percy. Bad timing." Nico said, breathing hard.**

"**We need you to get Mrs. O'Leary and shadow travel us." Percy said.**

"**Who's us?" Nico wiped sweat off his brow, and shook his hair out of his hair.**

"**Fang and I," Percy gestured to me, Nico looked toward me as if just now noticing me.**

"**Is he a half-blood?" Nico whispered in Percy's direction.**

"**No, he can see through the Mist, and someone like him has Annabeth. I don't know why, and I- We, need to save her."**

"**Be right ova'" Nico said. I felt a cold wind on the back of my neck, I smelt something similar to death, and there appearing right in front of me was the boy from the message. **

"**Fang, Nico. Nico, Fang. Now that we all know each other, can we get to camp?" Percy said. Looking around, "Where's Mrs. O'Leary?"**

"**Couldn't bring her, but I can shadow travel you guys." He yawned, "Lets make this quick." Nico grabbed my arm, right under my elbow, same with Percy, and ran straight toward the shadow of a tree. I thought we would run into the tree, when just then we were traveling through pure darkness, and the wind was so fast and hard against my face. I felt wonderful, never had I traveled this fast before, even by wing. Percy was right, this was a lot faster. We hit a wall. Or at least I did. When my vision came back, I saw Percy and Nico standing on one side of a pine tree, and I was on the other side. I tried to walk forward but I kept hitting an invisible wall. **

"**I, Percy Jackson allow Fang to enter. Now you can come in." Percy said. I walked right through this time. What I saw in this camp was kind of weird, strawberry fields, empty sand pits, stables, empty cabins. And on one side of the camp there was a giant farm house. A lake was behind the cabins, and woods over to the right.**

"**Something's wrong, were is everybody?" Percy said, he look at Nico who just shrugged. "Come on, let's go to the Big House." Percy and Nico started running toward the barn, I figured that was the "Big House" and flew up to it. Percy opened the door. There were two men in the Big House, one was in a wheel chair, and the other was round, with blood shot eyes, and red cheeks. They were playing a game of cards around a small card table.**

"**Peter Johnson, what are you doing here." The fat man said, "I thought you'd be on the quest with the rest of the kids. You're the one always on quest anyway, even if there not yours." Percy blushed.**

"**Were is everyone?" Nico asked.**

"**One the quest, Rachel said they all have to go. She came back to camp to deliver the prophecy. There has been an odd disturbance of monsters in New York. If you haven't noticed." The man in the wheel chair looked at me, his eyes looked like they new thousands of years, but the rest of him looked liked he was in his 40's. "Who's you're friend?"**

"**This is Fang, he can see through the Mist, and he knows how we can get Annabeth back." Percy said.**

"**Where's Annabeth" the wheel chaired man said, he look worried, kind of like he was Annabeth's father.**

"**Someone took her, his name was Dylan, and he's like Fang. Show them Fang," Percy gestured toward me. "Fang's a mortal science experiment." He said as I stretched out my wings. The man in the wheel chair nodded his head like this was an everyday concept. As if me having wings was not a huge deal.**

"**It's good to see other animal-Americans." the man said.**

"**What do you mean?" I asked. Folding my wings back in gently. Then the man started to lift himself off his wheel chair, revealing white pants, no wait, **_**fur**_**. He was half horse. I was having the weirdest day ever. I had a feeling I was in the Twilight Zone.**

"**I'm a Centaur son, the names Chiron. You know this, uh, Dylan?" Chiron asked, his eyes full of experience.**

"**Yeah, he was entered as part of the Flock, mostly for one unspoken reason, but yes, I do." I wasn't about to tell them about Max. How Dylan was made to be her other half, or how Dylan had said I was dangerous because of the monsters I'd seen. I sat there pondering this as the fat man with blood shot eyes talk with Percy and Nico. Then something occurred to me. I'd never told anyone about seeing monsters. Not even Max. Why would I tell Dylan, I hated him more than anyone in this room, including Percy who's girlfriend was currently being taken by Dylan. What was up with Dylan and steeling other people's girlfriends anyway. I **_**had**_** been with Max, but not anymore, because of, guess who, Dylan.**

"**Sometimes the unspoken needs to be spoken." Chiron said. Oh no, now he wanted me to tell about Max's perfect half. Ugh, this was not my favorite trip to the farm.**

"**Max's soul mate." I forced my words out, but low, soft, and mumbled.**

"**And who's Max?" Chiron said. Hey, the old dude actually had pretty good hearing, you have to give him credit for that. **

"**Another member of the Flock." I found my voice raising, "and it's really non of you're business."**

**The fat man stopped talking to Percy and Nico and looked at me. Why did he look so familiar, but not in the I'd passed him on the street somewhere, but a more old sense. Maybe a museum? Or part of the museum, this guy looked like the Greek god Dionysus. **

"**The names Dionysus, kid. And I don't fancy mortals." Dionysus, the god of wine, said. Vines started to wrap around my feet, up my legs, tying me together.**

"**Mr. D!" Chiron snapped. The fines died and fell onto the floor.**

"**Fine, be the party pooper." Dionysus, or Mr. D, said.**

"**So you said Rachel delivered this prophecy?" Percy said, "were is she now?"**

"**I think she's up in the attic, just getting her self calmed down, it was a major prophecy you know, and she is very week." Chiron said.**

"**What was the prophecy?" Percy asked. I began to look around as Chiron told Percy the prophecy. I was caught up in my own thoughts, about Max, about Dylan, and about Annabeth and Percy. Some of the lines in the prophecy were weird something about **

_**Under the ground the monsters dwell.**_

**And there was more bits I caught like,**

_**The help of the four mortals.**_

_**Is the key to-**_

**Someone was coming down the stairs, I tuned out the prophecy, and put my focus on the girl coming down the stairs, a red head with an orange camp half blood shirt exactly like the one Annabeth had been wearing. Percy walked up to her,**

"**Rachel, we need you're help, there are four mortals in the prophecy, and my guess is you're probably one of them." Percy walked over to the card table, and Rachel followed. They began discussing plans, and forming data. Lots of stuff I didn't understand. Somehow, I had a feeling she wasn't the one. And I was a normal kid, well compared to these guys. I didn't say prophecies, or control water, I wasn't even all that smart. I only had a hunch. **


	4. Chapter 4

Percy POV

"Were too now?" The sun was setting and we had just enjoyed a nice dinner in the Dining Pavilion, and I was ready to go.

"We need to see Jeb." Fang said staring at me like I was supposed to know something, even though I didn't.

"Who's Jeb?" I asked.

"He's the one who made Dylan. Well anyway he took DNA and stuff like that to make him." Fang said, stretching his wings out to relax. Rachel gasped, I forgot she still hadn't seen Fangs wings.

"He's a science project." I told Rachel. She continued to stare at Fang's wings with her mouth open.

"How do we find Jobe?" I decided that was his name after trying to remember what it was.

"Jeb, and all you have to do is follow me. I know the top three places he'd be." Fang pulled his wings down and flew up a little, then back down. He probably figured we'd need alternate transformation, since we couldn't fly.

"That taxi you haled with a coin and words awhile ago, can we use that?" Fang asked, looking over my shoulder at Nico who was doing something Nico-ish. I agreed to that and got the Fates Taxi quickly, Fang wrote the address down and handed it to the one with the eye, since it was written down, I couldn't read it with my dyslexia.

We flew down the street, quickly, passing through traffic. It became dark and Nico and Fang were discussing how people always call them emo, and Rachel fell asleep on the window. I just sat there thinking about Annabeth and this other Bird Kid. Why did he need Annabeth? I thought about how Athena said she didn't like my friendship with Annabeth, and that saving my loved ones was my Fatal Flaw. I wondered what my fate would be. If this would be the end, or if it was just another quest, were everything would end happily. Chiron had been right about the prophecy being big. So I had my possibilities.

I fell asleep about fifteen minutes later, to the soft humming of the motor, and the Fates bickering about the eye and tooth. I woke-up when my face hit the seat in front of me, and one of the Fates screeched, "We're here!" I wiped my eyes, and got out of the car. I was staring at a little house that was held up by stilts, and there was a kid on the front porch holding a small ball, wait, a small _bomb_ I backed up to the taxi, but it was already gone. The boy with the bomb put it down after seeing Fang. He ran in the house and yelled something, and two girls came running out, one completely jumped off the porch snapping out her wings and landing gracefully next to Fang and I.

"Fang," she said, she swallowed hard, and calmed herself down. "What are you doing back so soon? According to you're letter-" She stopped and looked at Nico, Rachel and I. She raised her eyebrows, shooting Fang a look that he seemed to understand, because he looked back at her with a different one. I understood now why he looked at me like a was supposed to know something, with his great communication on the home front, he was used to it.

"Gazzy, Angel, and Total left with him." She said, staring down at her feet, and sniffing.

"I'm Percy," I said, "and this is Rachel and Nico."

"Hi…?" The girl looked puzzled, "and you're here why?" Fang glanced at her. "Jeb is still here, he's upstairs, oh, and my name's Max." The girl, now known as Max, said. Fang told us to wait here. He went up to the house and Max introduced us to everyone. There was a girl about twelve or thirteen named Nudge, and a boy my age named Iggy. Max was also my age and kept staring a Rachel, no wait, Rachel's _hair_. She was giving it some kind of death glare, like she wanted Rachel to be bald.

**Fang POV**

I went upstairs, and found Jeb. He was writing something down and murmuring something about Dylan. I dissolved into the shadows and ease-dropped on his conversation with himself.

"Ok, and his father, was, er, Zeu-" he stopped and looked toward the ceiling. "Gotta' be careful with names. And mother was mortal Lila Gimmerson, not even quite sure who that is…" He scratched something out on a paper and muttered something like, "random woman". I thought hard about what Percy had told me. He had told me about half bloods, and so had the horse-man Chiron. They had given me every detail, and somehow I remembered one called Zeus, but Jeb had only said Zeu, maybe he had a reason. Now would be a good time to confront him,

"Who's Zeu." I asked. Somehow I figured he wouldn't tell me, and would give me a puzzling fraise I would have to figure out on my own, and then I would go crazy like Max used to. Max. What was I going to say to her. I left her and now I'm back hoping she'll help me. She probably hates my guts. Ugh, sometimes I think I can be such an idiot, I was thinking of my plan when Jeb finally turned around.

"Huh?" He seemed to cover his papers up with his elbow, and shuffled them together quickly, sliding them under a large book.

"Doing some paper work on Dylan, are we?" I tried to sound like I was on to him, wanting him to admit to me who Dylan was related to. Wanting him to confront my biggest fear about Dylan and who he was.

"Dylan… oh uh, Fang hi…" A pause. "Ah, you heard how much?" It sounded so totally out of character from Jeb.

"Dylan's a half-blood isn't he? You created him to save the world because you thought Max couldn't do it? Well you're wrong. She's a lot more capable than him, because if you haven't noticed he left, and he's on the _wrong side_" I emphasized the words, and Jeb just look at me and said exactly what I thought he would.

"How do you know _you're_ not on the _wrong side."_

**Max POV**

The girl with the red hair was standing next to Percy, she was looking down at the ground avoiding eye contact with me because I had been giving her my best you-die-if-you-even-look-at-Fang look (Not like I had practiced in the mirror or anything when Fang _had_ dated the Red Haired Wonder…) I hated red heads. First Fang dated them, then me, then left me, and brings one _home_. To _my _home. It isn't his home anymore, he has to make his own flock in case he forgot! Max, you need to cool down. I took a deep breath, and tried for hospitality, "So, were ya'll from?" (Yes, I tried a Western approach.)

"New York." Percy said, gesturing to Rachel and himself, "but Nico's not so sure, he was put in the… Let's just say he's older than he looks." Nico laughed and Percy smiled a little. I had to admit, Percy had a little charm to him.

Fang walked into the living room where we were, he gave one of his famous can I talk to you looks. I excused myself (gladly) from Rachel, the Red Haired Wonder, and then just normally from Percy and Nico. We walked into the kitchen were we wouldn't be seen or heard, and closed the door.

"Seriously, a _red head?_" I told him_. _He gave me one of his signature smiles that made me want to kiss him, of course I didn't because I was also really mad at him. But he didn't even try to kiss me, I must have had a look in my eyes that he remembered, the look I had before he kissed me, during the times when I didn't kiss him back. The times I ran away. The look of love fear, and he knew me well enough to know what I wanted and didn't want. I had always loved that about him. He told me about the random kids in the living room. He explained about Dylan, but what I didn't understand what was dangerous about Dylan. He was the son of one of those god people, what was his name, Zeus? That would explain his rugged good looks, but what did that mean for Angel, Gazzy, and Total who went with him. What did that mean for Annabeth, the girl he kidnapped?

**A/N: Reviews can help get chapters up faster! Leave a review (good or bad) and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading my story so far! -Awsome-One**


	5. Chapter 5

**Max POV**

After talking with Fang well through the night, I felt better, and was up to at least hugging him. I hugged him and it went to bed, it was probably three in the morning, and we were beginning our search tomorrow. We would start with Dr. Hans, and then move on to one of Percy's ideas.

Percy had been trying to contact Annabeth but kept getting her voice mail. I walked past the living room, and herd Percy talking to someone.

"Please, Annabeth, try to call me back. The number is-" He cut short and looked around for the phone number of our house. I walked down stairs and told him them number. He rattled it off on the phone to Annabeth's voice mail, then hung up the phone. He sighed and plopped down on the couch that had sheets and a pillow for him to sleep on. I looked over at the red head, Rachel, she's sound asleep, then at the weird kid who looks like a mini Fang minus the wings. I forget his name, Nico? I think. Percy finally broke the silence, "I'm just so worried about her. I mean last time when she fell off that cliff with that _mantacore_ I was worried then to, but at least I knew she was alive. I mean ,what if we don't get to her in time!" He began to raise his voice, and I held my finger to my mouth, and pointed at Rachel and Nico.

"We will" I said. Not even sure if we would because I was new to the whole, demigod thing. I mean if he wanted her, he probably wanted her for bait. To lure either the Flock and I or Percy and his friends.

I walked up the stairs silently looking back only once to see Percy run his fingers through his hair and walk back over to the phone. He hesitated before he picked it up, but then dialed the same number he'd been dialing all day. That's when I heard a loud _thud_ on the door. Percy immediately hung up the phone, and drew a pen out of his pocket. Another loud thud on the door. I saw Percy cursing to himself, something about monsters, the phone, and a signal. He woke up Nico, but left Rachel. There was more thudding, and Rachel kept sleeping, but Fang, Iggy and Nudge were awake, and running down the stairs to see what was going on. There were more thuds, like several people surrounding our house.

"What's going on?" Jeb asked as he rushed downstairs.

"Everyone stay away from the door" Percy said, clicking the top of his pen, and it grew into a sword. I sat there and gawked at it. The sword was at least three feet long, and it let off a faint glow in the house. I tapped the back of Iggy's hand twice. The thudding stopped, and it was silent. Know one said a word, then someone outside the house started yelling at something. The door knob turned, slowly at first while the unmistakable voice yelled once more. It was my mom, she closed the door behind her and turned around, her face in complete confusion at the sight of us all standing, and then seeing Percy's sword.

"Hi, to you too…" She said, still staring at Percy. Ella came in behind her carrying a couple bags of groceries, she dropped them and put her hand over her mouth seeing Percy sword.

**Ella POV**

Max was standing behind the kid with the sword. And there was a red head on the floor in front of him. The kid looked like he was getting ready to kill the girl with his sword, and Max was supervising. (Which doesn't surprise me considering how much she hates red heads.) Fang, Iggy, Nudge, and Jeb were all on the stairs a little bit away from Sword Boy and Max. A mini Fang was standing next to Sword Boy, getting ready to clap his hands. He dropped his hands to his side when he saw us. Sword boy clicked something on the bottom of his sword and it turned into a pen. The red head turned over and mumbled something about cheese. Jeb walked down the stairs, "Hello Dr. Martinez," he finally broke the awkward silence. "We have… eh, _visitors._" He said the word 'visitors' like these were special people, or contaminated ones. I couldn't tell.

"Can I help take in the groceries?" Fang offered as he hopped off the stair way, and grabbed the bags that were still sitting at my feet. He walked with them to the kitchen, and began putting them away. Sword Boy stared past me at the door. He looked at Mini Fang, who nodded. "We'll be right back." Sword Boy said, walking out the door, and making his pen turn back into a sword.

"What was out there?" Nudge asked, slowly coming off the stairs, stepping around the sleeping girl.

"A couple of dogs is all. They were pawing at the house." I looked up at my mom, she was still standing there, as if in a trance.

**Percy POV**

As we walked out side we saw two giant Hellhounds, which meant we could banish them back to the underworld very quickly. Nico began to clap his hands but one of them looked at me with longing, and the other looked at me with hate.

"Come here Mrs. O'Leary!" I said, and Mrs. O'Leary came bounding up, "Just that one then." I said, and Nico clapped his hands and the other Hellhound yelped and fell into a crevice.

"Great, lover boy, you just had to make twenty thousand phone calls." Nico rolled his head back and yawned.

"Sorry," I said, scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ear. "I just need to know if Annabeth's okay. Her mom will literally kill me slowly and painfully if I don't get Annabeth back… alive." I stared down at my shoes, then up at the stars. You could see them really well here. I could feel tears welling behind my eyes and I blinked them back. There was no way I would _cry_. There are limits on how obsessed you can be with almost one-year girlfriend. I lead Mrs. O'Leary to the back yard. We could use her for travel tomorrow. "Stay here girl." I said. I patted her head and went back inside.

Nico was already inside and had told Dr. Martinez, and the girl I now knew as Ella everything there is to know about a demigod. We went to bed about thirty minuets later. I laid awake, my mind buzzing with to many question. I thought I even heard a ring, kind of like a phone. Wait, the phone _was_ ringing. I jumped off the couch and answered it.

"Hello?" I whispered.

"Percy, is that you?" It was Annabeth, she was alive!

"Yes! Annabeth, you're alive!" I had brought my voice a little bit above a whisper and Nico mumbled in his sleep. Annabeth laughed softly.

"Yeah, I am. But I don't get very good reception down here."

"Where's 'down here'?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, I just know I'm under some abandoned looking warehouse, one for the company Itex." She said. I wrote down that name, we would need it.

"Don't worry were coming for you. What's down there with you?" I was a little scared to find out, but I needed to know what we were up against.

"There's some more bird kids, but I found out there all-" The phone line dropped. Her reception must be gone. I hung up the phone, and looked at the clock, almost five a.m. and I hadn't slept at all. I yawned at sat down on the couch I was sleeping on. I felt a little better now that I knew were Annabeth was. I looked at Rachel. The prophecy had said four mortals, and I was working with five. One of them wasn't in the prophecy. That could be potentially bad. I thought about my half brother Tyson, working with my dad, or at least in his forges. He was probably having fun with Briares, the hundred-handed one. I also thought about Grover, how I didn't even know were he was. I hadn't really kept in touch over the school year. The only person I really talked to was Annabeth. I finally wore myself out with my questions and thoughts. I fell asleep knowing that tomorrow was going to be a big day.

**A/N: Sorry this one's semi short and took me forever to get up! Also I want to thank you all for you're amazing reviews! -Awesome-One**


	6. Chapter 6

**Percy POV**

We left the next morning, after a long discussion during breakfast, we decided that the Flock was going to go talk to Dr. Hans, (Which Max kept calling Dr. God) and Rachel, Nico and I would try and find a couple more campers. Rachel, Nico and I took Mrs. O'Leary and shadow traveled to New York. As we walked around looking for campers, I began thinking about the prophecy. I looked at Rachel. She was one of my best friends, and I didn't want to loose her _and_ Annabeth. I wanted her to stay, but the prophecy had said four mortals would help us, and the last time I counted, we had five. As we walked Rachel said what I had been thinking the whole time, "What if I'm not one of the mortals in the prophecy? What if it's actually those bird kids?" She looked down nervously at her feet. "I think I want to stay in New York, Percy. I am the Oracle anyway, I think I would know if it was me in the prophecy." I couldn't help but think she was probably right. It wasn't a bad thing, because the prophecy had said something about someone dying.

"Alright." I said,

"what?" she asked as if I was supposed to have put up a fight about it. "That's it, there's no 'Rachel, no, we need you'?" She raised her voice and Nico stopped talking to one of the half bloods to look at us.

"No… I was thinking, and you're right. You would know if the prophecy was about you. I trust you to make the right decision." I looked her straight in the eyes.

"Phew," she said, looking up, and running her fingers through her hair. "I'm glad, because if you did say that, I would have felt bad and stuff and would have had my conscience bugging me until I did come with. Thanks, Percy," she gave me a hug then walked away toward her loft. I didn't think she would have left that quickly. She must not really have been into it, she loved going on quests with us.

**Max POV**

We had flown for about three hours before getting to Dr. Hans headquarter. It had taken a lot of research to find him, but we managed to find the one and only Dr. Hans at an Itex company in New York. After an extremely long talk with him about Dylan, and saving the world, and other stuff Fang looked at me like we had enough information about Dylan, and that he was hungry. We left Dr. Hans office but he followed us out.

"You know, I know why you're asking me about him, you found out didn't you? That Dylan is half god." He stared straight at us.

"Yeah, we did, and now he has one of our friends, friends. Who do you think you are, Dr. God?" I said, and Nudge put her hands on her hips in confirmation.

"Not so far from the truth Maximum, not so far." he looked at his watch, "Why do you care about this friend? Is it another Flock member?"

"Well sort of, Angle, Gazzy, and Total went with. Plus this friend, he knows a lot about half bloods because he _is_ one, and he's probably way more powerful than Dylan will ever be." I said.

"I _highly _doubt that." And with that, he turned and walked back into his office. We had to go get Percy and tell him the information we had found, because not only had we learned the confirmed truth about Dylan, but while we were talking in his office, I had stole a couple papers, and they held a key to release. _Literally._

**Percy POV**

We had no luck with finding campers, I was acctually kind of scared that I might come back to camp and there would be less then when we started. "I'm exausted!" Nico complained. He sat down on a bench. I sat next to him, "Were is everyone?" I wondered out loud.

"You don't think I was wondering that same thing?" Nico looked up in a tree next to us. His mouth fell open, he started laughing really hard. He doubled over on the bench,

"Nico, what are you-" I looked up at the tree.

"Hey!" A girl, one I knew all to well jumped out of the tree.

"Thalia!" I said, I stood up and hugged her, realizing the awkwardness of the situation, her being a Huntress and all I backed away.

"It's fine, Percy!" She smiled and hugged me quickly back. "So, I assume you know why we're here, given the circumstances."

"Yeah, but we need help with diffrent matters." Nico said with a sigh, and sat back down on the bench. "Anna-"

"Annabeth," Thalia interupted "Do you know who?"

"Someone named Dylan, he's a son of Zues, and I'm not sure how they got the genes of a god in him, but he's an experiment. He has wings, and-"

"No fair!" Thalia, yet again, interupted. "Wings **and** being the son of Zues? Golly! That's wicked!" I looked at Thalia and pondered how much soda she'd had today. "Well acctually, I would probobly never use the wings because of my fear of hights, but still-" Thalia rambled on.

"Thalia, do you think you'd be able to help?" I asked, ready to shove a sock in her mouth.

"Well, I'm alowed two breaks away from the Hunt a year, so... I could, but there are procedures. I would have to talk to Artimis and she's not here right now, she's some were in upper Manhattan."

"We have until sundown, then we leave tomarrow. It would mean alot to me- I mean us, if you would come with." I said, the stared at my feet and kicked a stick.

"Percy, is there something going on between you and Annabeth?" Thalia asked, then it occered to be that she didn't know me and Annabeth had been going out for nearly a year. We haden't even seen Thalia in nearly a year.

"Well, duh!" Nico blurtted out, "They started going out last summer!"

"Seriously!" Thalia said, a smile (bigger than the one that was already there) broke out on her face. "That's awesome! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know, we never saw you." I said, wanting to get her to go to Artimis so we could leave. It was almost noon, and the heat of the day would soon impale its self upon us. "Can you go talk to Artimis now?"

"Now?" Thalia asked.

"Now," I said, "Unless you want to eat at the Burger Barn with me and Nico."

"Ew! No!" She practicly yelled, then she pointed at her self, "veggitarian. Remember? I'll just go find Artimis." She shuddered and turned to walk away, as she walked she muttered, "Burger Barn? Ick, it's all covered in grease and- ew!" When she was out of earshot I turned to Nico,

"Were do you want to eat?" I said, smiling, happy that Thalia was getting a release now instead of just standing there. Yeah, I knew she hated the Burger Barn, wich was exactly why I offered to go there.

"Burger Barn" Nico said.

"Then Burger Barn it is." I said, and we walked away.

**A/N: Thanks guys for the reviews and help! I hope I can start getting at least 1 chapter up every week! :D **


	7. Chapter 7

**Annabeth POV**

I was sitting in a cell. But not alone, there was someone else on the other side. He had black hair, and was curled up with his head against the wall. I couldn't tell who he was, but he hadn't talked, or barley moved for the two days I'd been in here. Water dripped from the out of a pipe overhead, occasionally hitting the kid in the corner. My cell phone was dead, and didn't get very good reception down here anyway. The kid in the corner moved slowly but in a way, he sat up, I could see some of his face now. It was obvious he'd been crying, but that was only because his cheek was wet. A welt across his face, ruining his other wise perfect completion.

I heard a noise coming from the door to the room of cells, and threw myself into a corner. There was a kid in the cell across from me. He was just a little kid, he stood up, something behind him caught my eye, a feather. His little dog walked up toward him. He was here long before I was. I felt really bad for him. His dog had fake-looking wings on his back, and never barked. Every night, he would cry and talk about his sister, and his family. I never caught there names through his screaming and tears. He stuck his head through the bars and stared down the isle of cells. I couldn't see what he was looking at or who was coming, all the cells had concrete walls, and strong metal bars giving you only small seeing areas to see the person across from you. A most intelligent design, something even I wouldn't have thought of.

A girl, with darker skin and black frizzy hair was pushed into view. Her mouth was taped shut, and she was kicking a Empusa in the leg, it took out a celestial bronze knife, and pointed it at her neck, she immediately stopped kicking. Sweat trickled down her face, which was dirty and already full of tears. She wiggled slightly under the florescent lights hanging over-head. The Empusa opened the cell with the little boy and dog in it, then threw her in. The Empusa laughed manically and another one walked into view, they changed back into human form, showing themselves as two very familiar girls. I only remembered Susan, wich was wierd, I normaly had the best memory. She turned to look at me, "How nice to see you again." She batted her long eyelashes. "I sure enjoyed that kiss on the hand from _your_ boyfriend!" She streched the word "your" emphasizing her point.

"I don't care!" I sputtered out. I did care, though, and it made me angry inside thinking about it. The other girl, the one whos name escapes me, turned around. She was holding dinner. More like slop on a tray, kind of like school food, back in public school.

"Eat up! Before you forget to!" Susan said, and the other girl slid the tray under a small opening at the bottem of the cell, swiping off some of the food on top. They locked the cell door with the two kids in it, and walked off laughing. I began to eat my food, it was the only meal we got each day. So I always ate it all. The girl with the dark skin and hair didn't tuch her food. She just stared at it, crying only a little now. The boy next to her ate it up. She looked at both of us, half shocked, half confused.

"Don't eat that!" she whispered to the boy next to her. I put down my fork to listen.

"Why not?" He said, his mouth full of the mush. "It's the only meal we get a day here."

"Don't you remember? He's putting memory loss into the food, hoping to get us to start again, it will be easier to train us to follow him." The girl swatted down his fork, and it skitted across the floor. He raced after it, picking back up, and shoveling more food in his mouth.

"No." The boy answered plainly inbetween fork-fulls.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, scooting closer to the cell door, and she did the same. The boy in the corner figeted, as if maybe he wanted to know to, he had stopped eating his food as well.

"Dylan, the new leader of the revolt, against Olympus, you know, some other guy named... Luke, or something like that. Dylan said he did a horrible job trying to over-throw the gods. So now Dylan has put himself in charge, he has all these horrible monsters. And he want other demi-gods to join him. I didn't know what he was talking about until I found out I was a demi-god too." She said, she began fidgiting with her hair. "All of us are. Even him, in the corner." I looked over at the boy in the corner of the cell.

"So, who are your parents?" I asked.

"Well, Dylan is a son of... they sky god. I don't know his name-"

"Zues" I cut her off.

"Oh, and my friend, Angel, is a daughter of someone smart, I think her name started with an A. Like Athna or something..."

"Athena!" I said. "That's my mom too!"

"But so's her brother, Gazzy." She gestured to the boy next to her. "And, me, I'm not sure."

"What about the boy?" I asked geustering to him.

"I don't know he dosn't speek." The girl said. "But my name is Nudge." We sat in silence for a long time, I didn't eat my food, and niether did Gazzy. The boy in the corrner did continue to eat his, but after eating half of it, he stopped. He had put his hands on the floor and grunted once or twice, as if trying to break it open. Finally, he collapsed on the floor, and spoke.

"I can too speek for myself." The boy pulled himself up and leaned his head against the wall. His voice was increadably familiar, but I couldn't place it. Again, back to the memory problem. "Nico, son of Hades." _Nico_ said. I now knew.

**Percy POV**


	8. Chapter 8

**Max POV**

We were worn out. We couldn't go any farther; we had been traveling for two days, with three hours of sleep every night. Percy wouldn't let us quit. Nico couldn't Shadow Travel us all at the same time, so we had to use our own transportation. We were halfway to Europe, this is the Itex and Dylan was holding his friend, Annabeth, hostage. It really wasn't too bad since we didn't have the little kids.

The little ones.

They were also with Dylan. It made me slow down thinking about it. Fang probably noticed, because he slowed down as well. He grabbed my hand and flew above me. I looked down at the ocean that was whizzing past us. We were flying over the ocean, only stopping to rest on some of the occasional islands.

"I hope we get to them in time." I said. Fang nodded. He was still a man of few words. But that didn't matter. I loved him that way. Funny thing, I always told myself I wouldn't love him anymore a few weeks after he left us. I let go of Fangs hand to get some blood back into mine, I slowed down to Iggy's speed. He was looking around for any fallen Shadow Travelers. Nico was Shadow Traveling with Thalia.

"How you doin'?" I asked

"Tired, I need to rest." Iggy replied

"Don't we a-" I was cut off by Percy, he yelled back at us,

"Hurry! We only have a small amount of time!" I could here his voice was shaky. I flew faster to catch up with him.

"You know, you may be able to will the water to push you in your sleep, but the rest of us can't do that. We are real humans… well, sort of. And we need to rest."

"Me too." He admitted softly. Then, as if a gift from Heaven, I saw land. Lots of it, because we were there. We were in Europe.

**Annabeth POV**

I couldn't seem to remember the last thing I ate. I stared at the girl in the cell across from me. She and I both were experiencing memory issues that were so bad, I couldn't even remember her name. Her friend wasn't even talking anymore. Just silence and tears. I had this feeling that someone was looking for me, but I couldn't place who. I thought maybe this was where I had always lived. I was even thinking that Dylan (his name was mentioned to me everyday) was the best person in the world. I heard I rattling at the door. An girl walked in holding a tray with the daily meal in it. I could of sworn she flickered into an evil looking monster, but that wasn't possible. At least, I didn't remember if I was or not, so just stayed quiet and ate. She left, and we all ate.

"What's your name, again?" I asked the girl across from me.

"Uh…" She stared blankly into my eyes, ad if they were empty sockets, "I can't remember…" She kept eating.

For some reason I could still remember mine, but just faintly. I couldn't spell it, though. I think its Anna, but I couldn't remember anything past that. The boy in the corner had been hauled away today, he died of starvation. It was awful; I never even got to see his face.

"Are you ready to leave?" A voice behind me asked. The girl in the cell across from me screamed. I turned around, and there was a boy behind me. He had dark hair, a black shirt, and something about him reminded me of someone I knew… I wanted to say his name started with an "N". "It's Nico, you remember, right?" He took my arm, "whether you remember or not, you are leaving with me, let's go." Then, I did what I had to, because I didn't know this guy, and I had been through enough pain since this morning. I screamed.

The girl who brought our meals hurried into the room, the guy disappeared, but luckily, not with me.

**Percy POV**

"Nico!" I yelled. He had returned alone after Shadow traveling inside to retrieve Annabeth. "Why didn't you just grab her and leave?"

"I couldn't!" He yelled back, "there is some kind of force in there that kept me from getting her out! And if you want to come with me and try, feel free." He sat down on a rock outside of the large, crumbling stone wall. No one had seen us out there, plotting and waiting to find a way to get in. There were monsters everywhere; I was surprised they didn't smell us. Something odd was happening, and I was determined to find out what.

"She didn't remember me." Nico said blankly.

"What?" I asked. Thalia moved in closer, while Max and Fang went off to go talk about private stuff. Iggy just kept still, not moving.

"She didn't remember me. She seemed so un-Annabeth-y." Nico replied, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Un-Annabeth-y?" Thalia asked, with sarcasm in her voice. "That's not a word."

"It is now!" Nico huffed at Thalia, "Since when are you that tall?" He commented randomly.

"Does it matter?" I yelled. "Tell me more about Annabeth!"

"That's it. Then an Empusa came in, one of the ones I think you described to me as Susan?" Nico leaned back on the tree behind him, and I turned away, unable to bare the pain anymore.

"She was fine, though, wasn't she?" I asked. Nico looked over uneasily. I tensed up waiting to hear.

"She couldn't remember anything, it seemed. And for a child of Athena, I don't suppose that's 'okay'."

After a while of sitting around, pondering ideas on how to get in, I made a group decision.

"I'm going in."

At first, Thalia tried to convince me not to go, but I wanted to badly to make sure Annabeth was safe. We set up guards all around the building, Max and Fang covered the entrance, and then everyone else picked an opposite wall, the only wall we didn't cover was the north entrance, the complete opposite side of Max and Fang, because Iggy couldn't be alone, considering he's blind.

It wasn't as hard as I thought, sneaking in. All the monsters just drifted around, and completely ignored me. If one got in my way, there was a small battle, in which I came out victorious, using Riptide. The place was huge, and at one point looked like it could have been very sanitary, but the monsters had left feces, and fur on the floor, ruining it's other wise perfect white surface. I ran threw many rooms, trying to find the cellar door, looking around clean white labs, and long corridors that lead to closets holding lots of bottles, vials to be more specific. I took one and moved on. I wondered if there were any security cameras watching my every move. If maybe that Dylan kid was just waiting for the right moment. I got all the way to the cellar, before my superstition was confirmed.

"Get him." Dylan said, "And take him to Lab 4." Then, I was hit over the head, and a rag was put on my face. The world went black.


	9. Chapter 9

**Percy POV**

When I awoke, my arms were chained to a white padded wall. My feet had been put into shoes that were drilled into the floor, which was also padded. Wahoo, I couldn't kill myself; I had every intent to, though, when Dylan walked in with Annabeth. Oh, and the worst thing about the situation, she was holding his hand.

**Dylan POV**

After catching the dweeb, Percy, I thought I would have some fun. So, I walked straight down to the cells, and asked Annabeth to be my girlfriend. Of course, with the memory loss, from the poison in her food, she said yes. Forgetting all about Percy. I had trained all the prisoners to look up to me, admire me, and for some of the more attractive ones, have a crush on me. When I thought deeply about this, it sounded immature, and Jonas Brother like. I feared those kids with cooties. Anyway, she said yes, and I found the perfect opportunity to mess with Percy. He wouldn't wake up until after dinner so Annabeth and I ate in a dinning room I had refinished.

We got to know each other oh so very well. Because she didn't know anything about herself, I already knew it all. She was beginning to think her name was just Anna, or maybe it was Beth. I let her keep thinking that. She was a child of Athena, so her memory was still sharper than Nudge and Gazzy's. There was only one thing I wanted her to tell me during that dinner. And it was one thing I knew she knew. I wanted to know where Percy's weak spot was, the one he got after bathing in the river Styx. I didn't know what the professional name was, but I could learn that, maybe if I just jogged her memory enough. But I got nothing. I really wished I would have asked her this before hand.

Percy struggled against his bonds. I nodded and he was electrocuted.( Having Zeus genes was great!) Annabeth gasped at the sight. For a second I thought she remembered who he was, but that quickly diminished after she asked on of the most stupid questions in the world.

"Why is he warring those ugly shoes?"

"So he doesn't hurt us, _Honey_." I dragged the word, and Percy looked up weakly.

"Annabeth," he croaked out, "Do you remember me?"

"Oh yeah!" She said, then there was a pause, excitement shot threw Percy, I could see it. I panicked. "That's what my name is! It's Annabeth! Oh, and sorry kid, I don't know… _you_." She said you with much distaste. I smiled.

**Percy POV**

"Annabeth, Sweetie, can you please leave me and the nice gentleman alone?"

"Sure," she went to kiss him on the cheek, but he turned, and flat out kissed her. This outraged me. After Annabeth left the room I lunged at Dylan with all my strength. I was electrocuted, harder this time.

"Oh, Percy, how can I ever thank-you enough for being so distracted with proving you were a demi-god so I could capture Annabeth. Besides when you think about it, all of this is your fault. The Annabeth part anyway. If you had paid more attention to your date, you could have still been with her. Now, you and all of the people who stand in my way for taking down Olympus are out of the way. All because of you, I already have an army marching up there right now. It's really all part of my plan for taking over the world. In my opinion, it's working great." A strong shock ran down my spine. My eyelids felt like led, and my body began to shut down. I needed to stay awake, I couldn't go unconscious. I had to stay strong. Dylan began talking again, "You know who's going to be the first to go?" He glanced at the door Annabeth had walked out of. He drew a sword and turned toward the door.

"No!" I shouted. I desperately looked around the room for something, anything. There was a sink in the corner, but I didn't feel like I had enough strength. I thought about Annabeth, and reconsidered. From were I was, I turned the sink on, and forced the water to poor out in my direction. I made the pressure grow, until it was spraying me, Dylan turned around to see what was going on, I pulled against the chains, the one on my right arm broke off. Dylan looked at me with horror, then back at his sword. I realized he didn't know how to use it. I felt a small jolt run through my body. He was trying to electrocute me, the tug in my gut became more intense. Pain shot threw my body as I pulled against the left cuff. Dylan did the only thing he knew to do, he stabbed at my heart.

It deflected off my skin, but there was a hole in my nice shirt. The one I still hadn't changed since Annabeth and mine's date. I drew Riptide, and slashed at the left cuff, it broke off the wall, but not from around my wrist. I swung at Dylan, who was still standing in shock from when he had jabbed at my heart. He deflected my sword, and stepped back, which was were I messed up, because I stepped out of the water. I crumbled to the floor, and then Dylan shocked me. I twitched, and my foot went under the water, making me feel slightly better, I stepped back into the water. There was a plain, wood door next to the sink, that left me with one conclusion, it was a bathroom. I urged the toilet to explode, flooding the already damp floor, I ran into the tiny bathroom, which had a backpack in it, I fished through the backpack and found rope. I saw Dylan's shadow hesitate before he jumped into the bathroom to take a whack at my brain.

The sword bounced off like it had hit a refrigerator. I thought back to Kronos, the dead Titan. I kicked Dylan in the gut and he crumpled over, I disarmed him, and stopped the toilet from spraying, the floor was still wet, and I was better, so it was all good for me. I sat him down hard on the toilet, making sure his rear-end was wet, then I tied and gagged him onto it. I left with a satisfactory feeling. I stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door; I had taken the backpack with me, because it had a lot of handy stuff in it. I continued my search for Annabeth.


	10. Chapter 10

**Max POV**

I held Fang's hand. We had a discussion, and he explained to me everything. It was the most I had ever heard him talk, but I didn't mind his silence now, because I was so happy, but to frightened at the same time.

We were sitting on the ground, waiting to here from Nico. He was the first person Percy would report to, and he was to "Shadow Travel" they called it, and get us all to meet somewhere. It was after dinner, and I was worried. Worried for Percy, Annabeth, Nudge, Angle, Gazzy, and even a little bit for Total, who we still didn't know if he was alive. Come to think of it, I didn't know if any of them were alive. Fang put his arm around my waist and kissed me. I put my head on his shoulder, and cried a little.

"Whoa, PDA guys." Someone said. We both immediately got into a fighting stance. Someone walked out of the shadows, and I slugged him in the nose, kicked him in the gut and stood with my foot on his chest, he disappeared, and I immediately realized who I had just nearly killed. "Ooow," Nico moaned. "Goodness, do you kill everyone you see?" His nose was bleeding, but he seemed not to mind, the bleeding almost stopped instantly.

"How…?" I was amazed it stopped that fast.

"My dad is the god of the dead; it doesn't seem to affect me as much."

I sighed and shifted my weight, Fang grabbed my hand. "Percy still isn't back, and I was thinking about going in to help him."

"I think you should, but first we need a rendezvous point. Somewhere totally out of the way, top secret and such." I said.

"I couldn't agree more, which is why I'm going to try to teleport you there. It's in the side of a cliff, a cave you can barely see." Nico said. I got very uneasy. And when he teleported us there, it felt like my skin was being peeled of my face, but in the end, I kind of enjoyed it. Fang's hand was super red from where I had squeezed really hard. The cave was dark and muggy, puddles all over the place. Nico grabbed my hand and led us to the back of the cave, and pushed at the wall. A large stone rolled away, and there was even more cave. He grabbed my hand again and led my farther back. I had no idea how he could see where we were going, but he knew his way. We turned down another corridor in the cave, and I saw a light.

At first I thought I was dead, but it ended up being a very nice place with cots, and lanterns, Iggy and Thalia were already there. But there was someone else as well, my half-sister Ella, and my mother, Dr. Martinez. They were sitting next to Iggy on a sofa.

"Wow! Were did you get all this stuff?" I said, I ran up and hugged Ella and my mother, who smiled and sat back down.

"The store." Nico said, I didn't want to know if he had paid for it, so I left it at that.

**Annabeth POV**

I wandered the halls, looking in rooms, trying to find something about my past that I couldn't remember. Dylan hadn't come back for me yet. Something about the boy he was torturing was familiar. As if maybe we were related somehow. I couldn't think about him now. I just wanted some help… and maybe a protein bar. I found a room with comfy-looking beds; I laid down on one, and fell asleep.

I was abruptly woken; I turned over and starred at the kid I had seen Dylan hurt. His eyes were very blue, like the ocean. I blinked twice and sat up, he grabbed my hand.

"Let go." He whispered.

"I don't know you!" I shouted, and then I struggled away from his grasp. I stood up and shoved him. He didn't move very far, but a pen fell out of his pocket. He had a hole in his shirt, right at his heart. I leaned over and picked up the pen.

"Yes you do!" He cried desperately. He reached over for the pen, but I held it back from him. "I'm Percy Jackson; we went to Camp Half-Blood together for years! At the end of the summer last year, we started dating, and we had our first kiss, then we got thrown in the lake. I made an air bubble under the water. We went on date at the beginning of this summer, and I lost you. The reason you are like this is because of me!" A tear ran down his cheek, and he crumpled to his knees. He cried a little more. I squatted down on the floor next to him.

"You're crazy." I said and then walked away, twirling his pen in my fingers. Even though I believed him, really deep down inside. I had better relations now anyway. What was this one guy going to matter?

Percy POV

Anger boiled inside me, mostly for Dylan and myself. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, and ran after her. I grabbed her hand and ran, not about to let her go. I hurried into a padded cell, I ripped an open chain of the wall, I clasped it around her wrist, and then attached the chain to my own. I ran even faster now causing Annabeth to trip. I helped her up and started running again. Nico had already contacted me about the rendezvous point. And I was determined to find it. Then, Annabeth did the unexpected. She pulled an emergency block on the wall. All sorts of guards and monsters poured into the hallways. I practically dragged Annabeth from that point; she half ran half glided across the floors, me being bigger than her an increasing advantage.

I managed to get her outside the building, I ran to the side with that the cliff was on. I looked behind me. Susan the Empusa was running after me, her and two others I didn't know. I took my bag off while running, there was a grappling hook in there, I held tight to one end and jumped, I had no time to secure it, I hopped it would grab the ground while I fell. Luckily it did, but too soon, I could just barely see the opening to the cave. My hand was around Annabeth's waist, holding her, so she would fall and rip her wrist out of socket. I could here the shout of the Empusa, so I let go of the rope. I fell faster than I anticipated. I reached for anything my free hand could grab onto. Luckily, that was a large rock right above the opening to the cave. I swung in, and landed on my side. I rolled over, out of they way of the entrance, digging my shoulder into Annabeth's collar bone. She winced in pain, but still sat speechless. I emptied the remaining contents of my bag onto the floor, then I filled the bag with rocks and threw it over the side to give the impression I was still falling. And I think Susan believed it, because she said,

"Let's say we killed the boy, and threw him over the side of the cliff, then say we couldn't stop the girl from throwing herself over. They'll be dead anyway." With that, I didn't here them talk again. I stood up slowly, and grabbed a flashlight that was in the bag. I was determined not to use it until necessary.

Annabeth got up and grunted with pain. She collapsed back onto the floor. I then found it necessary to turn on the flashlight and get a closer inspection. She had put my pen in the pocket of her jeans, and during everything, it came un-capped the sword had expanded into her thigh.

"Annabeth!" I cried out. I lifted her up, and then carried her to the back of the cave. All the way to the stone that had to be moved out of the way, but that could only be done by Nico. I set Annabeth on the ground. I banged on the stone, and pushed it a little bit. Nico was on the other side, and he opened it all the way.

"Hey man-" he stopped short when he saw the blood on my white shirt, and Annabeth laying on the floor. "Oh, dude. I'm sorry." He whispered.

"It's not you fault." I said, and picked Annabeth back up. She was loosing a lot of blood, which caused her pass out. "If it's anyone's, it's mine." I walked past him, and he followed, "Hey, Max's mom is a doctor, and she's here. I went and got her when I heard about the memory problem, so maybe she could fix this too."

"I sure hope so."

When we got the room, everyone gasped in horror at Annabeth and me. Blood was all down my leg, and hers. "Help me." I rasped out. It looked even worse in bright light. Someone I had never seen before that must have been Max's mom rolled a cot up to me. I set her down, but didn't let go of her hand, (mostly because it was cuffed to mine.)

"Percy," Max's mom said, "You need to let go." I lifted my hand up.

"I can't." I grabbed her hand again, and stared at her eyes, even though they were closed. Nico came over and took out a celestial bronze knife to cut the chain with. I covered my face with my hands and took a shaky breath.

"Hey, dude," Nico said sympathetically. "Its gunna' be alright. For it to get better, you're going to have to let go." He snapped the chain with his knife, and Annabeth was wheeled into another room. Max followed with a big bag that had a red cross on it.

Max came back in later without the bag. It felt like it had been three hours, but Thalia had assured me it was only three minutes. I lay down, even though I knew I wasn't going to fall asleep. Within seconds I fell asleep.

I awoke to a sharp scream. I sat up fast and looked around. The only people in the room were Iggy, a girl I hadn't seen before, and Thalia.

"What was that?" I said. Thalia walked over to the side of my bed.

"Annabeth is no longer unconscious, but she still hasn't completely got her memory back. She still thinks she's going out with Dylan. Did you know she's going out with Dylan? Yeah, it was kind of weird at first, but I realized it was the memory stuff…" She jabbered on. I got up as quick as I could without becoming dizzy. I ran into the part of the cave Annabeth was in. She was no longer wearing jeans, but shorts instead. Her Camp-Half Blood T-shirt was still on, the end was badly stained with blood. Dr. Martinez was stitching up her leg, and Annabeth was wincing in pain, occasionally letting out a high pitch scream.

"Percy," Dr. Martinez said. "She's going to be all right, but you still need to wait in the other room." She continued stitching Annabeth's leg. I walked out slowly, but turned quickly,

"What about her memory?" I asked walking toward them, "Will you be able to restore it back?" I turned to face Dr. Martinez.

"Only if I had a sample of what they gave her, which is nearly impossible. You can't go back in there, they'll capture you." She sighed. "Here is your sword young man." She handed me my pen.

"Thanks," I shoved the pen in my pocket, and felt something else in there. Then, I remembered, I had grabbed a bottle from a closet near the cellar. I pulled it out. "What about this?" I handed her the bottle.

"It doesn't have a label," Dr. Martinez said. I examined the bottle more closely. I turned it 360 degrees, looked on the cap, and in the cap. When I took the lid off, a strong smell filled my nostrils.

"Ugh! That smells awful, Dr… Wait, what's your name again?" I closed the bottle. The… Dr. looked at me and frowned.

"That stuff is very strong, if it made you forget just by smelling it. In a matter of fact, if they would have given anyone in that jail enough, they could forget how to function properly, and die."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I will now be putting them up somewhere in between Friday to Sunday, but never later then Sunday. This one's early due to a busy Saturday. Thank you for your reviews! **

**Max POV**

When Percy came in with the bleeding girl, I knew we had to go get the kids. I looked at Fang, and judging by the way he looked at me back, he agreed. After my mom wheeled the girl away on one of the "temporarily borrowed" cots, Percy sat down on the other cot. He fell asleep almost immediately. Fang stood up and helped me up too, we walked toward the exit, and thankfully, no one stopped us. Yet. Then we got to the giant stone that only Nico could move, he interrogated us.

"Where you' goin'?" He asked, tilting his head to the right slowly.

"We need to go get the-"Fang elbowed me, "food." I covered.

"You need to go get the food? How does that make since?"

"I meant we need to go get food."

"Uh, do you not like what's in there?" He shifted nervously.

"No, actually, we don't." I said, not even knowing there was food already in there. I needed a better excuse, "I, uh, only eat meat."

"There's tuna fish, you know." He sat down on a rock, "That sounds like meat to me." I thought for a second, and came up with a plan B.

"Great! I love tuna, let's go, Fang." I turned, "Maybe my mom could use some help." I said, feeding him a bit of the plan. When we were out of earshot Fang leaned over and whispered in my ear,

"I thought you hated tuna."

"I do." I grabbed his hand, and continued walking.

We walked into the part of the cave Annabeth was in. We snuck in slowly, just incase she was sleeping; we stood in the back and watched her finish stitching Annabeth's leg. Annabeth drifted off to sleep, while Percy and my mom talked about something quietly. Toward the end of the conversation I picked up, "That stuff is very strong, if it made you forget just by smelling it. In a matter of fact, if they would have given anyone in that jail enough, they could forget how to function properly, and die."

We needed to get the kids, and we needed to leave. I grabbed Fang's hand and we ran to the stone guarded by Nico. I grabbed the kid by the front of his shirt, "listen, if you want Annabeth to live, I suggest you move this stone." I suddenly realized I could be approaching this more nicely, so I set the poor kid down. "Um, I mean, my mom needs us to get some stuff for Annabeth… It would be easier if we flew. Plus we need to stretch our wings." And with that, he let us threw.

**Annabeth POV**

My leg stung with sharp pain. The boy, Percy, ran into the room after I yelped from the first stitch. I was extremely tired, and didn't stay awake to here what they were talking about. I feel asleep and had a dream that went like this:

The boy, Percy, and I were sitting at a dinning table that overlooked a big lake. But we were inside, sort of. There were big, Greek columns that held up an even bigger roof. I handed him a big, ugly, blue cupcake. It had a singular candle in it. He blew out the candle and we sat there, looking onto the lake. We exchanged some sentences and I put my hands around his neck and said, "I will never make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain." Then I kissed him. We heard a noise behind us, we turned. There was a crowd of people, and in the front was a big girl with straggly dirty blonde hair. All the people behind her picked us up, and carried us down to the lake then, they threw us in. Percy made some kind of air bubble, and under the lake, we kissed again.

When I woke up, everyone was gone from the room, and pain shot back up my leg. I moaned, and heard some people yelling in a panicked way.

"I didn't send them out for anything!" the voice sounded familiar. It was the lady who had stitched up my leg.

"They told me you did! So I let them out! Who knows what they're doing!" A male voice said, also familiar.

"What do we do?" A voice I knew all to well as Percy answered, but his reply was softer and calmer. As if he knew I was asleep.

"I'll go." Some voice, female, said.

"Me too," one, male, voice volunteered.

"Alright," the lady said regretfully.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed. More pain shot up my thigh. I put all my weight on my only good leg, and hobbled to the big part of the cave. This room was well lit, and full of cots, sofas, and assorted can goods. I needed answers. No one paid attention to me as a sat on a rock in the entrance, resting for a little while. It was dark in the small corner I was sitting in, so when I girl and boy, both blonde, walked by, they didn't notice me. I pulled myself up, and hobbled into the room. All backs were turned to me as I said, "Were are the rest of my jeans?" Percy was the first to turn and run to my aid. He held me up by my elbow. And as much as I disliked him, I let him help me.

"I had to cut them into short so I could fix your leg." The doctor lady said. I sighed, knowing it was all for good reasons.

"Why am I even here? I don't belong here! I should be with Dylan," Percy cringed at his name and almost let go of my elbow causing me to sway a little. "Dylan," I said again, and Percy held my elbow even tighter. "Jeez, Percy, jealous much?" He loosened his grip.

"Why should I be jealous?" He replied, and shifted his weight. I shook my head and stepped closer to the doctor.

"Can I get a crutch?" I asked, she gestured to Percy,

"Looks like you already have one." She winked at one of us, and I shook my arm so Percy would let go. I nearly fell, but regained my balance.

"I want to talk to you alone." I said to the doctor. She looked around and Percy left the room. A girl who was calmly sitting on the couch stood up.

"This is my daughter, Ella." The doctor said. Ella nodded at me.

"Hey, I hope your leg gets better." And with that, she was out of the room.

We sat down on the couch, "I'm Dr. Martinez." The lady, Dr. Martinez, said.

"That's nice." I said, but I had better things to ask. "Why am I here?"

"That's something you are going to have to ask Percy." She replied. "I'm not even one hundred percent positive why I'm here." I leaned back, and tucked my hair behind my ear. I thought about the dream I had, and I told Dr. Martinez. "You know," Dr. Martinez said. "Percy told me about your first kiss."

I interrupted her, "I've never had a first kiss with Percy!" I shouted and then realized Percy probably heard me.

"Sure," she said. "Let me rephrase then. I heard a story about a kiss like that between you two, and it was _exactly_ like that." I bit my bottom lip, and thought really hard. Dr. Martinez left, I think she knew I needed to be alone. I thought about how mean I had been to Percy. I thought about what he had saved me from. I thought about Dylan, and how in the beginning he had been really mean to me. I thought that if I thought any harder, I would hurt my brain. It made me think about how familiar the dream was, and that lake. It sparked another memory in my brain, when Percy was begging me to come with him; he mentioned a place called "Camp Half-Blood". I'm sure that's were the dream had taken place. I wondered if I should let Percy explain himself without me yelling at him. Conveniently, Percy walked in.

**Max POV**

Sadly, I knew my way around this place better than I wished. I knew about secret entrances that led into the cellar. And other air ducts that ran to the top floor, which I doubt anyone used because it was so damaged. When we flew over the gates, and landed behind a tree, I saw things I never thought possible. I saw giant snake-like people with long silvery tails. In the stomach of these animals were faces, but they changed shape. When Fang had explained to me all of this, he had mentioned not everyone could see it, so why could I? The leader of these creepy creatures looked more like a normal woman, in a scaled skirt, wearing a belt with the same faces on it that the other ones had in there stomachs. There was a group of girls standing around, or wait, they had one leg of a donkey, and the other of metal. There were giant cat/humans, kind of like the Great Sphinx, only female. All of the people in charge of these monsters seemed human, but dressed similarly. I was staring at one of the Sphinx-like animals, when it collapsed, and then turned into dust. Dylan stood behind it with a sword, and behind him, Omega.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Merry Christmas everybody! (Oh, and a Happy New Year!)**

**Fang POV **

When we got to Itex, I panicked. Everything I saw before when with the Flock, but tripled. I wondered if we could be hurt by these creatures. I slid my hand over to Max's, and grabbed hers. I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Maybe we should just go back, Percy has more experience, leave it to him."

"No." She said, "We're going in now." After that, there was no stopping her.

We skirted along the wall, staying low behind trees, bushes, and other dead shrubbery. Max stopped suddenly.

"There." She pointed at a small air duct, and looked out of the bushes, making sure it was safe. She pulled back in, and pressed up against the wall. A huge dog walked by. Its nose came right up to the bush we were at. It sniffed, and kept walking. Max dodged out, I tried to hold her back but she shook me off and kept running. I got up and ran too, being the only thing I could do. When I had almost caught up with her, the big dog turned around. It came charging,

"Max!" Someone yelled. She turned toward the dog just as it jumped on her. I could see it going for the kill; it was going to bite her head off.

**Thalia POV**

We got there just in time, Iggy and I. We… well _I_ saw a giant Hellhound running toward Max.

"Max!" I yelled.

"What's happening?" Iggy asked, panicked. I didn't tell him because I assumed it would scare him. I grabbed the bow and arrow on my back, and aimed at the Hellhound. The oversized dog jumped on Max. It was now or never.

**Fang POV**

A silver arrow shot through the air, and suddenly Max was covered in dust. She shook it off, and ran to the vent. She pried it open, and crawled inside, Iggy, Thalia and I on her heels. We crawled threw until it slanted down, we stopped.

"We should just send one person through." Max said, so we did. Since Thalia was the shortest, we sent her. She was to give us the 'all clear' when she got down.

"Keep your head's out of the way. I'll shoot an arrow right here." She pointed to a spot, and marked it with a G. "The G means good. If I shoot it there, that means come down." She marked a D on the opposite side of the vent. "If I shoot here, that means don't come down, and I'll be back up shortly..." she thought for a while. "Or never," She added.

"What if you miss?" Iggy said.

"I never miss." And with that, she was gone. We were all tempted to look down the shoot to see what happened. But then were reminded of the D and the G on top of the vent. With a large _twang _from the two medals colliding, we looked up at the G, were the arrow stuck right in the middle of it.

"Dang," Max said. "She's good." Which was the understatement of the century, we all slid down the shoot, and landed on the ground of a clothes washing room. Inside were lots of unwashed towels covered in blood, sweat, mold, or water. A small cat staid curled up on a mound of towels.

"Aw! Wook at da wittle kwitty!" Max said. She walked over to pet it.

"Wait! Stop!" Thalia cried, "It could be dangerous." Max gasped and Thalia readied her bow.

"No," Max said. "It's dead." She picked up the dead cat and showed it to us. Thalia walked over and I could have sworn I saw a tear in her eye. She opened its mouth and smelled.

"Poison," Thalia said, "The same stuff used to make Annabeth loose her memory. Those monsters! They tested it on animals!" She took the cat to a clump of dirt, and put the dirt on top of it. She said something and the cat itself became dirt.

"You demi-gods are just creepy." Max said.

"Why?" Iggy asked, "What did she do?"

"She turned a cat to dirt."

"Ah! Cool!" Iggy punched his fist in the air.

"It was poisoned with the same stuff they are probably using on Nudge, Gazzy, Angle, and Total! Now is it cool?" Max said.

"Actually, not me." Someone's voice said, but it was slightly muffled.

"Where are you?" I said, looking around

"In the washer!" the voice called again, and the washer door rattled. Thalia pointed her bow toward the washer, and I walked over to open it, I pulled the door forward, and out hopped a little, wet, brown dog, the type that Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz had.

"Total!" Max and I said simultaneously. Iggy joined in a little late.

"Total!" We all laughed, but Total brought us back down.

"You better hurry, they'll be back. They r-ran me through t-the washer because I was being a 'nuisance' or something."

"Alright, where are Angle, Nudge and Gazzy?"

"I'm not sure were Nudge and Gazzy are, but after they did testing on us, for demi-god blood or something, Angel came out positive. So she is in training, yeah, I know what you're thinking. Probably something like, "Not more!" but this stuff is different. She's learning how to use a sword and stuff. It's not that bad. I watched some practices. If she gets hurt, they feed her some pretty yummy food, so I've been told. She says it tastes like burgers! Mhmm, that makes me hungry just thinking about-"

"I see why they put you in the washer," Thalia said. "And the 'food' you are referring to is ambrosia. We should get some for Annabeth."

"And that is why I put the stupid dog in the washer." A voice from down the hall said.

"Well get it out! It has been very useful!" Dylan replied.

"We need to get out of here," I said.

"Why? Can't you stay for a while?" Dylan said, he laughed. "Lock 'em up." And with that we were cuffed, and being pulled through the hallway. I passed Omega, and he glared at me, and then smirked. He punched Max in the face as she walked by. Her nose began bleeding. She lunched at him, and he backed up just out of her reach but not out of mine. I kicked him in the back, and he turned to swing at me. I ducked, so he backed up into Max's range. She pulled free from the person holder her cuffed hands behind her back, and socked him in the nose right back. We were regained control of, and pushed past. I looked behind at Max, who had obviously hurt her hand punching Omega's face, because she was biting her lip. She looked behind her, so I did too. We watched Dylan smack Omega. He yelled at him, "Don't do that again!" Omega went to grab at Dylan, but he retreated back with his hands up. "Just go be on guard duty in the west lawn." We went out of earshot, and thrown into a dark room.

"Well this is wonderful." Thalia said sarcastically. Total, being the dumb dog he is replied,

"That was sarcasm, right?"

**Percy POV**

I sat next to Annabeth on the little couch. "Listen," we both said simultaneously.

"I just want to tell you that if you want to go back, I'll take you, under one condition."

"And what's that?" She said.

"If you let me tell you about Greek mythology, then you can go." She sat silently.

"Alright, shoot."

I told her about all of the Greek gods I could name. Then, I told her about how sometimes, they have children with mortals. I told her about the pact of the Big Three, about how they all violated it once. I told her about Nico, Thalia, and I and how we were those children. I told her about her mom, and about Camp-Half Blood. The best part was she didn't interrupt me the whole time. After I got on the subject about quests, I told her about her first one, and the first time we met. She gasped.

"What's wrong?" I asked and stood slowly, to go get some ice if needed.

"My leg," she said. "You said celestial bronze only hurts demi-gods, was that sword celestial bronze?"

"Yeah, it was." I said.

"What if you're lying?"

"I'll prove it." I said, "Dr. Martinez!" She trotted into the room,

"Is everyone alright?" She asked. I pulled out Riptide, took of the lid, and held it close to her.

"This shouldn't hurt." I said, "as long as you're not a demi-god."

"Don't think so." She said, as sweat dripped down her face. I slashed. She screamed. Ella came running into the room, "Mom, what's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," she was astonished. I was relieved. Annabeth passed out.

"Annabeth!" I said, and ran to her side.

"She'll be fine." Dr. Martinez said, "J-just trauma. Help me pick her up." Dr. Martinez grabbed one arm and lifted. I picked up all of Annabeth with a grunt, and we walked into the dark room she had originally come from. After I set her down in the cot, I pulled up a chair and held her hand.

**Annabeth POV**

Percy was telling me all of this stuff, and I had this flashback:

I was standing behind Percy he was talking to Fang. I remember his name from a brief introduction. Percy was doing this really cool thing with water, making it reverse its way up the fountain. Then, I was gagged, and a bag was put over my head. I was picked up, and thrown in another bag. I hit my head on a rock and passed out. When I awoke, I saw a familiar face, it was Dylan, and he pulled me out of the back and poured a liquid down my throat. I instantly forgot where I was.

I gasped.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked. I had to make up an excuse. I didn't want to tell him, so I made something up. After he slashed through Dr. M, I fake passed out. Percy picked me up and carried me to the room where I had surgery on my leg. He left, and I opened my eyes. He came back in with a chair, so I shut them again. He continued talking to me. Telling me all about myself, and everything we had ever done together. I fell asleep. And dreamed about a quest we went on with a Cyclops.

In this dream he was tying me to a pole. He put wax in his ears and left. He steered the boat and we passed by some vulture-looking creatures. They sung, and I just couldn't resist them, I cut myself free, and jumped overboard. Percy saved me, and kept us underwater until we were completely safe.

When I woke up, Percy was still there, but sleeping. I sensed it was night time. He was still holding my hand. I got up, and with my other hand, prodded him awake.

"Who- what's happening?" He yelled, he shook his head, blinked hard several times, and rubbed his eyes. I said what I had too,

"You said you would take me back, and now I'm ready to go."

"It didn't work?" He asked.

"Did what work?"

"It doesn't matter, you don't care."

"Is this about that Greek thing?"

"You know, it's more than that! It's about getting your life back! Healing your leg, and getting back your memory." He put his elbows on his knees, and buried his face in his hands. "About you remembering me." He added softly. "But if you want to go back, we can." I cared about Percy as a friend. I had had many dreams about him and me, some of them, we were together, some of them we kissed, and others we couldn't stand each other. But in every single one, we were friends. They all seemed like vague memories. Somehow, when he showed me Greek writing, I was able to read it. When he listed the symptoms of a demi-god, I found I had them.

"Let's go." Percy said, he began to leave the room, but I stopped him.

"Wait, uh, can I tell you something?"  
"Sure, whatever." I could tell he really wanted to hear by the way he snapped back into his chair.

"I've been having these dreams…" I told him all of the dreams, even the one were we'd kissed.

He smiled sweetly, but kind of awkwardly. I could feel myself blushing, and turned away and pretended to act nonchalant. (You know: the odd smirk, scratch of the head kind of thing that makes you look like you might be smelling your armpit. (But I totally wasn't in my defense.))

"Do you believe any of it?" He asked, getting a bit nervous himself. I didn't know what to say.

"Possibly…" I said, and he immediately went for a hug, "but I'm not sure!" I pushed him away. We sat in silence. He moved at sat next to me on the cot, both of our legs dangling off the side. I put my hand on my wound, and took in a sharp breath when it stung. His hand brushed mine, and then he grabbed it. I looked over at him, and he leaned in to close the space between us. Then, we kissed, a soft quick kiss. The floodgates of memories let loose, filling every crevice of my mind with old memories, the ones of my family, Luke, and Percy. All hitting me at once, it felt like getting hit in the heart with a baseball bat. I began to cry, remembering Camp Half-Blood and the gods.

"I need to be alone." I said, and looked down at my hand, which was holding his. He let go, but I didn't. Not until I had to. He walked out; head down, and silent as a mouse. I crept slowly out of the large part of the cave I was in, took a small glance in the brighter room, inside was Percy, Dr. Martinez and her daughter. I new about Nico, and how he would not let me past the large rock, I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I needed to breathe. I needed to get away from my emotions, but I didn't know how. I explored around the cave.

After a while of searching I was worn out. I was ready to give up, but I had no idea were I was in this cave. I sat down on a rock and sighed heavily. I felt a breeze on the back of my neck. I looked up at a small tunnel going up. I glanced around, and pointed my flashlight up, I thought I saw grass. Using rocks in the sides of the wall, I hoisted myself up, my leg burned from all the walking I had been doing, but I pulled my self up higher and higher, refusing to let myself come back down.

I reached the top, and stuck my hand out the hole. I didn't think it was large enough for me to fit through, but I had to try. I blindly looked around to find something to grab onto outside of the hole. I found something leathery, but it backed away making me think it was a snake, or other animal. I found a hand grab mine, and I freaked out, trying to get away. I was hanging now, I let go of the cave as the person continued pulling me through a hole I totally didn't fit through. I burst from the hole, and a huge person was holding into my arm, which had been dislocated. My hair had dirt in it. It was night time, and this person was starring at me and the hole I had come through. He set me on the ground and pulled me after him, back toward the crumbling Itex.


	13. Chapter 13

**Rachel Elizabeth Dare POV**

I sat in my room, staring out of the window, which overlooked a good portion of New York. I wished I had gone with Percy. I was so bored, and they still hadn't come back. Last I heard, they were on there way to England. I felt like I was missing out on the best thing in my life. I turned my music up louder. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, Sphinxes, circling the Empire State Building. I picked up my phone. Who was I gunna' call? (Ghost-Busters!) I didn't know very many demi-gods; all of those were busy anyway. People around the building were running, and screaming in terror. How could they see the monsters? One of the images flickered, and the US Troupes showed up in their helicopters. I opened my window, and the screams were magnified a thousand percent.

"Everyone step away from the building calmly!" A man yelled into a megaphone. A bunch of kids in Greek battle armor ran up to the building. I ran down the stairwell and out onto the curb, running up to all the campers.

"Children! Please step away!" The General called louder into the megaphone.

"What are you going to do?" I asked Malcolm, who was standing a short distance away.

"Well, they seem to be clones, which is why the people can see them. Unless they have been trained to kill, they are just here to scare, while more monsters are moved in through the back…"

"Are monsters _really _that smart?" I asked, knowing what the answer was.

"Only if they had a leader," he answered, "So we've sent some Ares campers over to the other side to check it out."

"Children!" The man practically screamed into the megaphone, "Don't take a step closer, or the monsters may attack! We are sending down some troupes, don't be frightened!" We all looked at each other, and took a step forward. As predicted, the monsters growled and snarled. Bearing their large gruesome teeth, but oddly, none of them attacked, they just continued circling. Some Ares campers ran up to us, Clarisse leading them.

"No other monsters in sight!" Clarisse reported. She spoke to soon, for another helicopter landed, disappeared, and came back up. On the side I could barley make out the word:

Itex.

**Percy POV? Maybe? Nah… I'm going to with Dylan instead.**

**Dylan POV**

Omega made me so mad sometimes. He never did what he was told. You'd think he'd be a genius, but NOOOO. He has to think he's so cool, and punch my true soul-mate in the face. I had tried to use Annabeth so I could weaken Percy, but she had forgotten everything. Now, I just wanted to talk to Max.

I walked into the room. They had found the lights, and turned them on. I saw

them rummaging through closets, pulling out lab coats mostly, and they had found crowbars, and had undone Max's cuffs. She pulled at Fang's cuffs with the bar.

"Ah, so I see you found the lights." I said, and strolled in casually.

"We're not idiots." Max said, and continued pulling at Fang's cuffs with the crowbar.

"Ow!" He said.

"Sorry…" Max said under her breath. I wasn't going to let her free Fang, because he would stop me from what I was about to do. I grabbed the crowbar and hit Fang on the side of the head. Not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to make it count. I put the crowbar back in Max's hands. He hadn't seen me do it, so I was hoping the blame would go to her. I knew it was kind of Old School, but it as worth a shot.

"Hey! What was that for?" He turned right as Max put the crowbar back into _my_ hands. That didn't go as expected. He stood and kicked me. Where it counts. I doubled over, and grabbed Max's arm. I pulled her out of the room, and locked the door.

"Ughhhh." I groaned.

"Let go of me!" Max demanded. I shook off the pain so I could talk to Max.

"Listen, we're going to have dinner tonight. And nothing you say can stop that, we are soul-mates. We belong together, so act like it."

"No!" She yelled, "I don't like you." She got away from my grip, and unlocked the door, beginning to open it. I slammed it closed, and locked it again.

"Your new room is almost ready. You will need to stay in here until it's completely ready." I said, "Then you will get ready for dinner in your new room." I re-opened the door, and let her back in. She re-kicked me. Where it counts.

**Max POV**

I walked back into the room fuming. Fang looked at me, but didn't say anything. He knew me well enough to know I was _not_ in the mood to talk. Thalia, on the other hand did not know.

"What did he say?" She asked naively.

"I can put this really simply, or I can bore you with long descriptive details."

"I'll take the simple one," Thalia struggled against her cuffs. I looked at Fang, sighed, and said, "I'll be going on a date tonight." I went and worked on Fang's cuffs again, it was harder this time using my bare hands. Dylan had taken the crowbar with him. It had taken all of us, including Iggy, to get just mine undone, and that was with it. "I could use a little help!" I said, and Thalia semi-crawled, semi -walked to the closet were Iggy was digging blindly, literally, through a closet. He handed Thalia a plastic syringe.

"This will work!"

"Iggy," Thalia said, "No offence but this is practically useless. It would snap before we even-"

"Then that's not how we'll use it." He said, "Turn around." She did. Iggy found her arm, and then the cuffs, he felt around them for a while until he came to what he must have been looking for. "Ah-Ha!" He exclaimed. Grabbing the syringe, he stabbed the sharp part down into her hand cuffs. Turned it a little, and- _click_. They popped open, and Thalia pulled her arms in front of her.

"Ugh! That feels good." She shook her arm back and forth. Iggy dragged himself backwards towards me.

"Are you still in the same spot, Max? With Fang?" He pulled himself further toward us.

"Yes." I said, grabbing his arm after he veered off to one side a little. He did the same thing to Fang's cuffs, and I watched very closely so I could do the same to his. After we were all free from cuffs, we needed to get out the door.

After several minutes of digging, Total yelled, "I found one!"

"Found what?" Thalia asked, with edge to her voice. I could tell she still hasn't happy with Total. Ever since we started looking he'd been singing. He sang songs like, She'll be Coming Over the Mountain, and Oh My Darling Clementine. Sliding up and down on the musical scale.

"A watch!" Total brought it out with his mouth to show us, "I've been wondering what time it was all day!" He dropped it on the floor, and looked at it some more, pushing buttons with his paws. "Oh darn. It's broken." Total tossed the watch, and kept looking.

"You got us all excited," Thalia took in a sharp breath, "Over a _watch_" She dragged out the word watch.

"Actually, I got myself all excited about a _wa_-"

"Can it, dog." Thalia said. Total was in the middle of dragging out the watch the same way Thalia had, mocking her.

"Can we just keep searching and cut the chatter?" I said. Iggy wasn't digging anymore, he had fallen asleep. It must have been late, and we hadn't had good sleep in a while. I couldn't find anything useful. There was only three closets. Fang and I looked through one, while Total and Iggy (When he was awake) looked through the second. Thalia had her own, of which was smaller than everyone else's closets, with a weird light blue-ish door, labeled, Caution: My Contain Nuts. The closet didn't even have nuts in it, just a few packets of Animal Crackers that were gone with in the hour. Fang and I had the clutter closet. Full of torn lab coats, old or broken lab utensils, and some dirty socks. Total had made a lot of observation noises, you know, like hmm, and oh, and the occasional ick and ew.

"Alright, nothing left here." Thalia said. The most useful thing she had found was a hammer with the hammering end missing. We had attempted to use the nail-puller to wedge the boor open, but that end broke off too. We set the broken wooden end next to the door. Anything else we found either wasn't strong enough, or wasn't useful in the opening of the door.

Fang picked up the wooden end of the hammer, and felt the wall. He lined it up with one end of the handle, and whacked a hole right by the dead bolt. He stuck his hand in the hole, and moved it around strategically. There was no handle or anything on our side of the door, just a metal covering were one should be. Fang pulled his hand out of the hole, and took another blow at the wall. This time, he wasn't as successful. No change went with the door. For every action there is a reaction, so his arm flung back, and his shoulder was dislocated.

"Ugh!" He cried out in pain. The banging had woken Iggy, and we rushed to his side.

"It's gunna' be alright, man." Iggy said, and put his hands on Fangs shoulder. "Say, how much to you like pineapple?" Iggy asked plainly.

"What does that have to do with- Ahh!" Iggy pulled Fang's shoulder back in place.

"You'll thank me later." Iggy said, and went to go sit back down. There was a sound outside the door. I heard someone try to open the door, then mumble something about unlocking the door first would be helpful. We backed away from the door, and it opened. Percy stood there, waiting, as if my line was first.

"Um, come with me. Your room is ready?" He said it as if it was a question.

"If you're here to bust us out, then lets go," We all started for the door. Then, someone else, no, wait, then another Percy came up to the door, followed by five others.

"This isn't good." Thalia said, as if we didn't know that already.


	14. Chapter 14

**A:N/ I felt like updating early. :)**

**Rachel POV**

I had gone back to my room, they had taken out all the Sphinxes very quickly. All but one, that seemed to be a leader. The others acted as if they were untrained, and had know idea what to do when faced with a sword.

The suspicious helicopter had come down, saw what was going on, and flew away again. As if it had new information to be given to its headquarters. For it flew away, its motor at full speed. I turned on the T.V. There was a Gieco commercial.

"Can Gieco really save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance? Do wood chucks chuck wood?" The screen changed to some 'wood chucks' chucking wood into a lake. Then it changed again. The breaking news sign popped up, and our local reporter showed up on the screen.

"It appears, that all around the Statue of Liberty are swarming dragon-horse-women. We talked to a few bystanders, some in very strange costumes, who seemed to know everything about this creature. Jim, take us to them now." The camera switched scenes, and Malcolm showed up on the screen. Of course, I got what they meant by 'costumes', he was in full Greek battle armor. And his helmet was under his arm as he talked into the microphone.

"They are called Kampê. We actually killed it in a battle, and that judging by the appearance and skill of these they must be clones. Cloned at least a year or two ago, right before they were killed." H wiped the sweat of his forehead. It had to have been at least ninety degrees out there, and the heavy armor was not helping one bit. I ran over to my window, and pulled open the blinds. Wrong window, this one faced the other direction. I ran to the other one, but a building two stories higher was in the way of my vision this time. I pulled off my hoodie; it was cold in my room, because I had the temperature turned down to at least sixty-five. I made yet another mad dash down the stairs, and was out of breath by the time I reached Malcolm.

"Again?" I gasped, "Were they delivered by a helicopter?"

"Yeah," he said, "the same one we saw earlier. You know, the one labeled 'Itex'." He said Itex with mystery in his voice, waving his hands slightly. "Does it have something to do with where Percy is?" He asked, as if _I _knew the answer. I had stayed here, and regretted it.

"I don't know, I did go with him." I said incredibly agitated. "But if I had a guess, I'd say yes." '

"Hmmm," Malcolm stroked his chin, like old, intelligent people do. Well, the ones with beards do, anyway. "We should Iris message him." Of course! Iris message! Why had I not thought of that…?

"Let's do!" I said, semi-sarcastic with an edge of aggravation and annoyance.

"Alright, and then we should see what's going on."

**Percy POV **

Dr. Martinez, Ella, Nico and I had found a flash light, still on, lying on the ground. Above it was a small hole, just barley large enough for Annabeth to fit through.

"She ran away?" I asked, kind of amazed that things were that bad. I wondered how much she had remembered, and how much it had hurt her.

"She crawled through a hole?" Nico asked. Ella sat down on a rock and played with a flashlight. She hadn't talked much since she had gotten here. I didn't blame her if she didn't want to be here, either.

"Were else would she have gone?" I began.

"Who's gone?" A familiar voice called.

"Who do you think!" I spun on my heel, but was reveled an Iris message, Malcolm was there, and so was Rachel.

"Hey!" I said to them, then realized they hadn't sent this message just to chat. Their expressions told me so much more. "What's happening down there?"

"Kampê, they've attacked the Statue of Liberty. And earlier, there were a bunch of Sphinxes around the Empire State Building. They were awful fighters. I have no doubt they were cloned, so the Mist didn't work on them. All the people have seen them, so New York and the rest of America are in panic." Malcolm finished, and I sat down on a rock.

"This is _great_," I said, sarcasm dripping from my words like a runny faucet. I put my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands.

"Hey!" Rachel said through the message, "You can do this, it's not the end of the world." Hurrah for motivation, but Nico had to ruin it.

"Yet."

Malcolm and I talked a little bit more; and then I gave him instructions on where we were and how to get here. We came up with a great plan, it involved everyone. Our finale would be better then the finale of the greatest musical on Broadway. A cast performance, all done in synchronization. It was a beautiful picture by the great Norman Rockwell. I felt poetic, but what the hey, I was happy as a dog on go-to-the-park day. We climbed out of the hole, it was night time, perfect for espionage. We snuck to the gates, floodlights streamed everywhere. The gates looked new, and the old ones were leaned up against the outside of the wall. A dented hummer, yellow, right by the old gates also. We heard some strong German accents talking, so we dove behind the hummer. Dr. Martinez grabbed for Ella's hand, but grabbed Nico's instead. His eyes flew open incredibly wide, and I stifled a laugh. She apologized telepathically and grabbed Ella's hand.

"I cazn't bevive he did zat." One said. They stopped in front of the gates. They had guns, and sword in sheaths by there sides. They looked like medieval gunmen.

"Dylzan wazn't even zuppozed to leave de Flock." The other threw his head back and crossed his arms over his over his chest. "Now wez haz to suffure from it. I cazn't stand him." I had a brilliant idea. I waited for the right moment, making sure my plan was right and would work.

"I wish wez could quit ziss stupid shob." Guard One replied, leaning up against the stone wall, and it crumbled slightly.

"You can," I said, and stepped out of the shadows. Ella grabbed my arm, but I shook her off, giving her a look, trying to tell her I knew what I was doing.

"Shtep back!" Guard Two shouted at me.

"No, it's alright," Guard One said, silencing his friend, holding him back. He stepped forward, and pulled his gun out of its holster dropping it on the ground; he didn't move his sword, though. I grabbed Riptide out of my pocket just in case. His eyes were focused on my hand.

"How can we be of service?"

**Dylan POV**

Omega had Annabeth by the wrist, which looked broken or dislocated. Her hair was clotted with dirt and grass, as if she was pulled out of a hole.

"I pull her out of hole." Omega said, completing my hypothesis. I was making sure every last detail was ready for my date with Max. I cleaned the floor and everything. Now Omega brought this girl in, and tracked dirt on the floor. Max was 'escorted' into the room by the Percy clones I had made. Annabeth looked over at them and gasped. Omega dropped her on the floor and she scrambled to her feet, rubbing her wrist.

"Let me go!" Max shook the Percy duplicates off her arm. She grabbed the biggest chair, which was supposed to be mine. "Let's get this over with," she said, and slouched in her chair. I took a seat in the other one.

"Take Annabeth to the dungeon." I waved my arms to signal her away. Half of the Percy duplicates grabbed Annabeth, the others swept the floor were she had tracked dirt in. Omega followed them all out, and we were alone. Max was wearing a nice blouse and jeans. I was wearing a tux. She had _not_ worn what I originally picked out for her.

"What happened to the dress?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"Too…-" She stopped, and put a piece of steak in her mouth. "dress-like," she said through a mouthful of steak and potatoes. "Can I get some more of this stuff? Like, to-go?"

"No, this is just between _us_." I leaned forward, trying to make myself slightly more seductive. She just continued stuffing her face. Then, after a while, she leaned in toward me. So, I did like-wise. She puckered up, and I thought I was going to get my first kiss at only one-year-old!

She socked me in the face, and ran out of the room.


	15. Chapter 15

**Max POV**

I ran out of the room, but was grabbed by the Percy clan. Dylan wasn't far behind. I could tell he was boiling with anger. "Take her to the dungeon with everyone else!" He practically spit on me pronouncing his T's. "I tried to give you chance, Max, and you blew it!"

"I see a reoccurring trend here with this blowing-it thing." I said, and I could tell he was on his last string, which was probably the size of dental floss now.

"GET HER OUT!" He screamed at my face, I wiped the spit off my face, and called one last thing at him while I was being hauled away, "You should try swallowing your saliva once in a while!" I turned, a listened to him scream and curse under his breath. I smiled at my escorts. "That's how it's done, gentlemen." I kicked one in the knee, and stubbed my toe. _Ow, _I thought. They were exactly like Percy in every physical way. Their personalities were off a lot, though. They put cuffs around each hand, but these weren't connected in the back, they were the kind that had to be chained to a wall. I had a feeling I knew were I was going.

We passed through several of the big rooms in the castle of Itex, including some of the barracks. The TV's no longer worked, and had huge cracks in them. Some had even fallen down, blocking doorways, but there was an effort being made to move them. In one room, there was people, kind of like the ones we saw earlier. They were chained to a wall, and a bunch of Whitecoats were stabbing them with syringes. I recognized the process immediately. They were cloning monsters. This was not good, considering we only had, what, seven people? And one was blind and the girl, Annabeth, was probably clinically depressed. This was not something we would most likely win. Hurrah for being optimistic.

I was brought down the steps to the cellar and dungeon. The darkness crept up on us, and I felt like I had just hit a black hole. Until someone switched on a light.

"Ahhh!" Someone said, "My eyes!" I recognized that little kid's voice.

"Gazzy!" I called, and I got a punch in the stomach.

"Stay quiet," said one of the Percy duplicates, "Or I'll tell the boss."

"Ooooh," I said kind of like a young kid would. "Don't tell mommy! Then I'd be in some big doo-doo!" A growling noise from deep in his throat was the response. They pulled me into a cell that had two people in it already. Most of the cells had people or things in them. I recognized quite a few of them. Lots of Whitecoats, which I was glad to see behind bars, but I wondered why they were all down here, I thought they were part of this operation. Another wounded attempt to take over the world, that the wack-jobs would think could work, and keep going, failing in the end. Sometimes, I thought I could possibly be smarter than some of these fools.

The cell I was to be in was already occupied by one girl, not facing me, and a large man all too recognizable as ter Borcht.

"So we meet again!" I said cheerfully as I was chained to the wall. (That's me, Optimistic Max!)

"Ugh, shnot vou again…" He droned. "Brigid, help me shut zis girl up."

It was Brigid in the corner. Ha. She was in chains. Then again, so was I…

"Oh, hello there, Max." She said, "How's Fang doing?"

Oh of course. Little Wonder Doctor needs to know how the Fangster is doing. How lovely. I was really tempted to say he was dead or injured, but I didn't, because I'm a self-declared saint.

"He's… peachy." I answered through gritted teeth.

"That's good." She replied and gave me a week smile. "I suppose it's nice to see you again too. They haven't served us memory loss delicacies yet, so I suppose we have a use." She nervously rubbed her hands together.

They had totally redone the dungeon since the last time I'd been here. There were now walls and individual cells.

"Max, I von't zuppoze you could veave anyzime soon?" ter Burger Belly said.

"And I don't _zuppoze_ you could loose zome wait _anyzime_ soon?" I asked, and he reached to hit me, but his chains suspended him. I leaned toward the front of the cell. "Gazzy!" I called out of my cell.

"I'm here too!" called Nudge, "Who are we talking to?" she asked. Which puzzled me, I could have sworn I had a recognizable voice. I had been next to her since the day we were born. Which reminded me of the memory loss, and I knew I had to break free from here. The cuffs weren't the same, and they didn't have locks on them so there was only one way to release myself, and that would involve some pain, skill, and major hammering tools I did not have.

"It's Max, sweetie! And I'm going to help you get out!" I wondered were Fang, Iggy, and Thalia were. Mostly Fang, but the others mattered too. It made me think, would Fang leave me again? Would I cry just as hard, or would I expect it? Maybe he'd tell me before he left, and explain everything. It seemed like he left for all the wrong reasons. I find it harder to survive with out some of my Flock then with it.

"I tink you tink too much," ter Borcht said. "You look like you're millzion milez away. Maybe you'z developzing a plan of ezcape, how duze zat vork, exactly?"

Ah, the life of a scientist never ends. Once a scientist, always a scientist, I say.

Enter Nico.

Literally.

"Hey!" he said joyfully. There were two guards with him, and they had just the heavy duty gear I was looking for in busting out of this joint. "You must be Gazzy," Nico held out his hand to ter Borcht.

"Actually, that's-" but he wasn't done introducing himself yet.

"And are you Angel or Nudge?" He asked Brigid the Wonder Doctor.

"I'm Brigid…" She said calmly, and Nico shied away.

"I'm guessing this isn't Gazzy then?" Nico motioned to the fatty in the corner.

"My name iz Dr. ter Borcht," He said to Nico, "Anzd I vould love to know how you zapped in here vike zat."

"Well, I happen to be a-"

"Don't give him any information; he's a dopey scientist that is only out to sell you to China, or ruin your life forever, enclosing you in a dog-cage." The guards broke my chains off. And I stood over ter Borcht, ready to smack him down. "But what he doesn't know is that we have souls, and a conscience." I didn't touch him, but his eyes ad widened, flickering fast, as his breathing sped up. I looked around toward Brigid Dawyer. My Fang stealer, but some brains that some people (cough ter Bugger cough) lacked. "Get her out to." I pointed at Brigid. She must have been holding her breath, because she let out a deep sigh, and seemed to relax a little. "Have you managed to get Fang, Iggy and Thalia yet?" I asked Nico.

"Yeah, that one wasn't as hard. They were just roaming the hallways, and I ran into them while in the bathroom…" He finished his sentence as if it was an embarrassing story. We are all meeting just outside the building. It won't be hard to get out if it goes the same way." He pulled a knife out of his pocket, and began sawing at the bars. He made it through one after about five minuets, but there was just a line, no way were we making a break for it any time soon.

"You shnow, these metal barz aren't going to give avay to your vittle knifez." Ter Borcht said obviously.

"You think I don't see that!" Nico gestured toward the bars and yelled at ter Borcht in a harsh whisper. "Ugh, we need, like, a blow torch or something."

At that exact moment, a kid about fifteen years old popped into the room. He stumbled around a little, and then regained his balance.

"Who are you?" Nico asked, obviously startled. I couldn't say I wasn't either, though.

"I'm Sam Temple from the Gone book series. Awesome-One zapped me in here because she can't get you guys out of here."

"Oh, and how can _you_ get us out?" Nico asked doubtfully. In response Sam Temple put his palms out toward the bars. A bright light shot from his hands, and the bars melted away. "Ah! Dude! You should stick around!"

"I can't," Sam said regretfully. "I have a group of people stuck inside a really hot wall to attend to." With that, he popped away.

"Zat vas odd." Ter Borcht said, "And whoz 'Awesome-Vone'?" He put air quotes around the name.

"Jeepers, people come and go so quickly here!" I said, stunned.

"I guess it doesn't matter, we control our own destiny, and we're out." Brigid said quickly and ran out, checking both ways before 'crossing the hallway'. We all followed.

"We need keys so we can get Gazzy and Nudge out too." I said, searching around for some. I ran down the dark hall, they had shut the light out again. My footsteps seemed louder than they needed to be. When I came to the 'officers room' per say, two giant, golden, cat-like eyes blinked at me, and the giant dog that had attacked me earlier was now starring me in the face, growling and stepping closer every second. Nico and Brigid must have noticed because Brigid gasped, and Nico called my name silently.

"Max," He said slowly. "How well can you catch?" With that he threw a sword from one of the guards and I caught it. "Aim for the chest!" He called as the dog attacked. I slashed in his general direction, but must have missed, because he was still there.

"You must be new on the job," the dog said, his voice was gravely and some-what horse. Nico's face registered extreme shock, but I was used to talking animals. "I see young half-blood, that you don't know I can talk, which also means I can use the intercom." He snarled at us, "But why call for back up when I can take you all now?" He lunged, not the first time I'd been attack by one of these things. I held the sword in front of my face, expecting him to jump on me, and get impaled by the sword. Of course, this being my lucky life, he didn't. He jumped right over me, toward Nico, Brigid, and the guards. Nico clapped his hands together, and the ground shook, and stopped. He did it again. Nothing but ground shaking. The dog seemed confused. Then, he recovered and smirked at Nico.

"The ground doesn't bow to its master anymore, eh?" The giant puppy lunged, jaws open and poised.

"No!" I shouted, and ran towards Nico; he held up his knife and slashed the dog. It did nothing, and he ran,

"Help!" He shouted at the guards, but they were dumbfounded. The dog pounced on the guards, and ate one, the other managed an escape. We needed these guys to get us through the building. I took a stand, I held the heavy sword with both hands, and slashed at the dogs back, right at his heart. Just like the last time, the dog burst into dust, and disappeared. The man that the dog ate fell down on the ground, and his idiot buddy ran up to him. He must not have been chewed up yet, because he was still all in one piece. Nico grabbed Brigid's arm, and motioned for the guards to come. They help the guard up, and kept going. I shuffled through some draws, finding a key ring. I ran up to Gazzy and Nudge's cell, and unlocked it. "Let's go." I said and motioned for them to come. Nudge passed out, and I caught her. We needed to get out of here, and quick, before anyone died or was fatally injured.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ter Borcht POV**

Max walked by my cell, which was open, but I was chained to a wall, making things oh so very annoying.

"Max!" I called, she had to help me if I just convinced her. "Vill you not let me vree, too? I'm against Dylzan az much az viou arre." She looked at me, then at the passed out girl in her arms.

"No, viou looser," She imitated my accent horribly. I was sick of her attitude, and it was all I could do to keep my cool. It was dark and I could barely see her. I wondered if she had gone. I knew about her raptor vision, and she would see me if I snarled at her. I tried and strained really hard to convince her. I saw her silhouette move slightly towards me.

"Why are you against Dylan?" She walked close enough so I could see curiosity in her eyes. I held up my arms so she could see the chains.

"Izn't it obvious?" She shrugged and turned around, leaving me all alone in the dark.

"Say! Aren't you in a pickle? All chained up to a wall!" Said a voice with an incredible British accent that I recognized, but couldn't place, it must have been from a movie or something…

"Who are vou!" I asked quickly.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist!" The body came and sat next to me. He was wearing a pirate hat, and had two short braids in his beard. "_Captain_ Jack Sparrow." He told me quickly, and stuck out his hand for me to shake.

"I'm all chained up, I can't shake vour hand!"

"Why hello, Allchainedup, you can be that way if you want." He said politely. We sat in silence. I wanted to slap him hard, but thought better of it, since he wasn't _Allchainedup. _

"Ahh," he sighed. "I remember when I was all chained up at one point. Good times, good times."

Another long pause of silence.

"I suppose you wanna' be free, mate." He tried, and stood, waving keys in front of my face. He grabbed my cuffs, and tapped the keys to it a couple times.

"Vou have to vreak them off-" I began to tell him, when he rudely interrupted me.

"I'm going to have to break these off. Brace for it." He pulled out a sword, and smashed the but of it at my cuffs. He broke through, all the way to my wrist, but didn't know he had, so he kept bashing. I cried out in pain. "It's alright lad!" He said, "they'll be off soon!" He kept bashing at my arms until my wrists broke. Which only then did he stop. He picked something else up off the floor. A bottle of rum, it was, and began drinking. I stood up and rubbed my wrist with my one good one.

"Vank-vou." I said, and shoved past him.

"Not so fast." He grabbed my arm, and pulled me back toward me. "I wanna' fight in this battle too!" He took the flat side of his sword and tapped me on the shoulders- dubbing me in a matter of fact- twice.

"You are now in me crew!" He smiled profusely.

"Vait, vou don't even know vhat's going on!" I protested, amazed at his arrogance.

"Vell," he said, mimicking my accent. "_I'm _the one with the large gang of fierce and evil pirates."

I silently agreed with him. "Alright, I tink vou have a point."

And with that, we set off to go recruit his large gang of pirates.

**One of the Nameless, Dumb, German Guards POV**

I felt important. I felt needed. I was not yelled at to 'just go stand by a gate or something'. I had purpose, and I felt like I was doing it well.

"Let's move!" I yelled at Max, Nudge, Gazzy, Nico and Brigid. I knew all of their names, but I wasn't sure if they knew mine. A Whitecoat walked by, and I tried my best to look as tough as possible. My acquaintance was another guard who had been standing next to me when a strange boy, who we later found was named to be Percy, offered us a new job. I was enjoying it very much. I loved to feel important. My mother had never made me feel important. She had only liked my brother, Roger. So here I, Heinz Göustoff, am. Being even more important than my lame brother is, (He works at a mayonnaise factory.) I was saving the world, so I'd been told, while he screwed lids on jars of white gunk. We were supposed to look like we were moving them from point to point, and so far, everyone was buying it. We managed to get all the way outdoors before someone stopped us.

"Where are you taking these… _things_?" He looked up and down the dirty, scarred kids.

"Uh, to zee… zee…" My acquaintance stuttered, brainless and brain-dead.

"Ve are taking dem out for a valk, sir." I said, covering up for the poor sap.

"And why should I believe you are capable of not loosing them?" The Whitecoat said. I needed to prove that I was tough, I knew they would forgive me if we got them out of here, so I grabbed Max by the arm and socked her in the nose. She spun on me, but I steadied her out, and tried to give her a look that explained everything. To top it all off, I winked with my eye furthest from the Whitecoat.

"Zat iz how." I said, feeling powerful.

"Alright then," he did a half-hearted salute, and left us. We ripped open the gates, and ran to the meeting spot outside of the shrubbery.

There was an abandoned home just outside the giant castle-like walls, and we were all present. Percy took control after that.

**Percy POV**

"We'll wait until morning, and if they aren't here, we will do a little more espionage and try to get Annabeth and Angel back." I said, across an old dusty table. Everyone nodded and went off to the selected rooms. It was only a three bedroom house, so the Flock, Dr. Martinez and Ella were in one room; Thalia, Nico and I were in another; and everyone else, so I guess the guards, were in the last. Thalia was uncomfortable sleeping in the same room as _boys_ considering her Huntress position, so she slept on the sofa that night. I didn't blame her. I found it awkward too. I just considered myself a _man_.

Early the next morning there was a series of knocks on the door. Rachel, Malcolm and I had come up with a code knock. This wasn't it, though. I peeked through the blinds, but no one was in sight. I was clueless. I heard a voice murmur something, and then they knocked again. I still saw no one, but the knock was right. I answered the door, looking out at a field and then lots of shrubs that lead up to Itex. Suddenly, Malcolm was standing right in front of me, holding Annabeth's Yankees cap. I could barley restrain myself from pulling the cap from his hands and hugging it.

"Hey, man," Malcolm said, then turned around and waved the cap in the air. A small stream of half-blood, and Rachel, walked out from behind the neighboring house.

"This is everyone?" I asked, knowing this would not do.

"Not quite," he said, and then he walked to the edge of the house, waving the cap again. About three dozen campers crammed into the small house.

"Is this everyone from camp?" I teased. Knowing some of the campers had probably stayed behind, such as the Aphrodite cabin. Clarisse put a strong arm around my shoulder, and punched my chest.

"Hey, we'll get Annabeth back!" She said, as she released my arm. I rubbed my new bruise carefully.

"Yes," I said, and began talking to the campers who had shown up. "We will attack tonight. I hope you all brought some ambrosia, because there are so many things in there. Do you remember what it felt like to be told you were related to a god?" – multiple heads nodded- "Well, it will be like that. Science is really creepy, and impossibly strong." One of Annabeth's half-brothers raised his hand. I knew he would say something really smart about science or something, so I ignored it. "Any _questions_?" I emphasized the word question, and he put his hand down, but a couple went up.

"What kind of things?" It was one of the Aphrodite campers, I didn't known had shown up.

"Really bad and scary things, but at the same time, kinda cool," I answered trying to keep my voice steady.

"Who are they?" Another camper from the Hermes cabin asked, as the Flock entered the room, wings fluffed slightly out of their backs.

"One of the really cool, but dangerous science experiments," I responded, and some kids craned their necks to look around, and Max stood a little taller, and expanded her wings so they barely peeked out from behind her back. The kids around her put hands on their sword hilts.

I grabbed the attention back on myself. "Malcolm and I will formulate a plan right now." I said, hinting that I need him to come with me. Rachel made an eh-hem noise from the back of her throat. "Fine," I grumbled. "Rachel, Malcolm and I will be making a plan. When we are done, I suggest you come look at it."

We stepped into the room Nico and I were staying in. Nico was there, and had pulled the nightstand out in the center of the room, and pulled three chairs around it, and one stool. He sat down on the stool, and we took the remaining three chairs. The plan was simple and almost fool-proof. I felt it was worthy of Annabeth's planning. Out of all people to step into the room next, I didn't not expect to see Annabeth, riding on Chiron's back, eating ambrosia.


	17. Chapter 17

**Percy POV**

I practically shoved Chiron over, and swooped Annabeth right off his back. She hugged me, and I hugged her back. I felt tears run down my neck, she was crying. I pulled her away and held her shoulders.

"Are you alright? Where did you go?" A huge smile filled my face and she just shook her head.

"I'm fine," She sniffled and I wiped her tears off her face, she laughed a little bit. "A couple hours in a dungeon was all it took. I'm fine now." I looked over at Malcolm, Nico and Rachel, who all got up and greeted her with huge hugs. Malcolm reluctantly gave her hat back.

"If you ever don't want it anymore…" He trailed off. She laughed, and hugged him again.

"You'll be the first to get it." She said quickly to him.

"Golly, way to show up. We have to completely re-do our plan now," Rachel joked. We all laughed, and within the next couple minutes we had completely re-done our plan. Which was now even better then the first, thanks to Annabeth, who had pointed out every single flaw in the old one, making Malcolm embarrassed. He had practically came up with the whole thing. Then again, Annabeth had been around Itex more than he had. Max had been there even more, which is why we ran it by her before we laid it out for everyone to see. She said it was great, and so did everyone else. Some Aphrodite campers showed up and complained about their part of duty.

Annabeth and I took a walk out side the house, away from everyone else. We held hands, interlocking fingers.

"When everything hits you at one time…" She said, "Especially my life, every sorrow, every inch of pain, everything. It comes back hard, and it hurts." She said, stopping, and facing me. "So I felt-" She stopped and corrected herself, "I still feel overwhelmed. It's more or less like depression," she finished, and began to walk again. I didn't move. She turned to face me.

"You're depressed?" I said, and stepped up next to her. There was a pause, and stifled breath.

"More or less so, like I said-"

"You aren't going to commit suicide, right?" I opened my eyes wide and studied her face. I had seen plenty of movies in health class about depression and such, and they usually ended in suicide.

"Of course not," she tried to start walking, but I still found it hard to believe. "It's not like I haven't had all of these emotions before, Percy." She said, and let go of my hand.

"Yeah, but you had them one at a time. Now you have them all at once…" I trailed off, and stared at her feet, they walked a bit closer to mine, until we were about a foot apart. I looked up into her gray eyes, they had dark bags under them, and no doubt mine matched. No one slept well recently.

"I know you're worried, and I appreciate that, but I would appreciate a little more trust too." She rubbed her eyes and yawned. "And I want you to know that I'm with you all the way tonight when we attack." She stepped closer, and we kissed. It couldn't have been to long, but time never seems to matter. We drew away from each other, and I hugged her. We stayed hugging for a while, I swayed back and forth a little. It was really hot out, and I hoped she didn't mind the fact that I was sweating. A creepy old lady smiled at me and walked into a different house.

We began walking back to the old house, I put my arm around her waist, and she put her arm around my shoulder. I began to open the door, but then closed it and said, "Oh, and by the way, if or when this is over, remind me I owe you a date." I opened the door, "Ladies first." She laughed a little and we went back inside.

Gazzy was lying on the coach with Iggy- Chiron told us it would be alright if they had a crumb of ambrosia, so Gazzy and Nudge were back to normal again- they were making some bombs for tonight. I couldn't help but overhear his conversation.

"I can't believe Angel gets to be half-god and I don't! I'm her brother for crying out loud! I thought we had the same parents!" I realized something about the Gasman that had made me think maybe he was a demigod. He struggled with reading and could be a little rash. I was told Angel was really smart, and so was he, but It was still just a guess. What god was that good at making bombs? That was probably an Annabeth question.

**Third Person: In Olympus.**

"I know he's got my blood!" Zeus yelled, he pounded his fist on the arm of his throne. Thunder roared over New York. "While I was down in New York one day, I found myself being followed by one of those blood donors. I was with Thalia's mom, and she gave blood, so I felt obligated. I hadn't told her who I was yet!" He defended himself well. The others were silent, but not for long.

"It's called saying no!" Poseidon yelled at his brother, and the Atlantic Ocean seemed to roll restlessly around. Storms had become a little more natural for the New York area. The world was off-balance since they had began fighting.

"Listen!" Athena called, "your son"- she pointed at Poseidon- "Is endangering my daughter! I never liked them together! I warned him, but he obviously didn't listen! I can see were he got it." She sat down harshly and turned away from the rest of the group.

"Alright, you, listen!" Poseidon stood up and lunged toward Athena, Hephaestus interfered, and Poseidon calmed down. He breathed in deeply and exhaled, filling the room with a saltwater smell. "My son is fine, your daughter went with him."

"No, she was with him until he stopped paying attention to her, then she was kidnapped!"

"That could have happened with anyone around!"

"Yeah, but it didn't now did it? Just admit your son lost my daughter!"

"She's back now, what does it matter?"

"What matters is that you admit your son is awful, and that you are wrong!"

"My son is not awful!" Poseidon roared at Athena, and the ocean went along with him. A major hurricane swirled in the middle of the Pacific, and then settled back down as he became calm again. "He may be a lot of things, one of those being a hero, he saved Olympus. But he is not… _awful._" He sat back down.

Apollo spoke up next, "It doesn't matter now, and we are in danger again. Now what are we going to do about it? Sis?" He nudged Airtimes, and she formulated a plan.

"I'll take all of my Huntresses, and we will go with Thalia to stop this. Most of the camp is already there in Germany to help. Now it's our turn. Let only half of us go, that way we may protect Olympus and save the mortals at the same time." She smoothed her dress, and Athena fumed in the corner, no doubt wishing she had come up with the plan herself.

"What do we do about the scientists that made Dylan and stole the blood of a god?" Zeus injected, wanting revenge.

"We kill them all. For every wrong deed must be punished."


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hey, thanks for all the reviews and ratings! I appreciate it!**

**Max POV**

We were set out to fight. It all began very soon. Every one of us had a part in this extremely complex and well formulated plan. I was beginning to stress out. A thought was put in my head by Angel. "Help me; I'm right next to you, trapped."

Wait, Angel had to be relatively close to put thoughts in someone's head. I looked around we were just out side Itex, Fang, Nudge, Brigid and I. Our places poised so when twilight came, we would be ready for attack. They both looked at me, startled.

"Did I just hear Angel?" Nudge asked. Our job was to find Angel first, but I thought maybe we should wait until… I realized I was doing what I was told. Me. Maximum Ride, was doing what someone else had told me to do. It felt odd.

"Let's go get her then!" I said, and crawled slightly toward the edge of the brambles, Fang grabbed my ankle.

"No, Max." He said, letting go of my ankle.

"Why not?" Nudge asked.

"We could get hurt, and I won't let you do it." He said, and his face showed expression for nearly once in his life. It was concern mixed with agony and regret. It was the most terrified I had ever seen him, and it all seemed more dangerous now than ever. Something was bigger than what we saw. Someone was behind all of this, someone more powerful than Dylan. Someone… or maybe some_thing_. I looked around for Brigid, she wasn't there.

"Where's Brigid?" I asked quickly. We looked around to see her scarf tied up on a high branch of a tree. This wasn't good, our cover was blown. Who knew if she did it on purpose, but we moved, just slightly, to a new location. Hoping it wouldn't interfere differently. Of course, this is my life, so it did. Sort of. Because we bumped into a German scientist name ter Borcht. And gang of pirates, and some other authentic looking guards. He probably had twenty people including himself.

"What are you fighting against?" I asked him acquisitively.

"Againzt zat ruffian Dylan! Vat else?" He answered truthfully.

"Then I see we're on the same side for once." I answered, and he looked me over and stuck out his hand.

"Truce?" He said quickly.

"We may be on the same side, but I'm still not an idiot. No way would I ever make a deal with you! But if anyone asks… We're on the same team." I moved away. I new this might not turn out, but it was the best shot we had.

About half and hour later, the sun was almost completely set, and I peaked about the brambles for the signal, which didn't come for five minutes. But the minute the small orange and yellow flame began crawling through the dead underbrush, I knew it was fighting time. There was a group of hellhounds- I had learned their name- waiting for us, giving us maniacal grins.

"Get 'em" One of the larger hellhounds ordered. I knew immediately that Brigid had ordered these here, especially since she was riding one. She laughed evilly and road off. How's that for Fang's Wonder Woman? Next time I saw her, I swore I would kill her. If I didn't die first, we darted, there was no return, the fire had consumed all of the brush around Itex, and it burned high and hot.

"Up and away!" I called we flew high, and fast enough to get out of the way. One of the hellhounds grabbed Nudge's shoe, one of her fashion statements. I knew this would be a nasty fight.

"Let go of my shoe, you runny slobber faucet!" She flapped harder and harder, I had flown out of range of the dogs, so they couldn't get to me. I saw she was lifting the dog off the ground just slightly. He pulled back with enough force to pull a building down. She toppled over.

"Untie your shoe!" I called at Nudge, and raced down to help her. Another one got my shoe, so I untied it, and slipped away. Nudge would not give up. There was a rustling in the shrubs as the fire burned closer. The pirates, guards and one German scientist burst out of the underbrush. All the hellhounds looked away from us in confusion, giving Nudge a split second to pull away.

Her shoe was torn, but she managed. The minute Angel was out of the building, it would explode. The bombs were on timers though, so if she wasn't out in time… or we weren't either… I didn't want to think about it. We flew to the top of the building, crashing through the week ceiling. I felt the floor give under our feet as we fell another story. There, all alone in a very white room, was a single crate stuffed with a little blonde girl, white wings, and a face brighter than the sun when she saw me. I ran to get her out of the crate, but it was locked. Angel pulled a purse out in front of her. Her arms were shackled together, and her face was scarred. She pushed the purse toward me, he effort nearly making her collapse. I looked through the purse. A key, a pair of odd looking sunglasses, and a mostly empty bottle filled with an odd liquid.

I took the keys and unlocked the crate. However she had managed to get them was a mystery. The key also worked on her shackles. We could here voices coming from the hole in the ceiling. I put everything back in her purse, and Fang, Nudge, Angel and I shot away out of the ceiling. The people who we heard talking screamed when they saw us, and sounded an alarm, but we got out safe.

So far, it was a success.

**Dylan POV**

I sat in a giant leather chair, looking at the fire that blazed on the TV screen. I stroked my chin and looked harder. My gift of sight had been taken to new levels this year. I could see into the future. I could see invisible things, which is why I saw Gazzy running through the building, wearing a Yankees cap, planting bombs everywhere with timers. I ordered people to follow and disarm the bombs. What a surprise it would be when nothing blew up. I laughed to myself. Susan walked into the room. She was an _Empusa _and right now she was in her human form. I stood, "What's the news?"

"All bombs disabled." She replied.

"_All_ bombs? Are you positive?"

"Yes sir, we followed him out of the building and out side of the gates without him even noticing us."

"Rookie error." I mumbled about Gazzy. I walked over to my ever most comfortable bed. "Wake me when they find out nothings happening."


	19. Chapter 19

**Percy POV**

After Gazzy came back, I waited. And waited. Nothing happened.

"Are you sure they're on?" I asked him.

"Yes sir!" He saluted me and walked behind me, then seemed to remember something. "Are you always completely invisible in that hat?" He looked at the cap in Annabeth's hands.

"Yes. Unless someone can see invisible things, why do you ask?" Annabeth answered.

"People followed me, but I just assumed I was going the same route as them, you know? In addition, after I set the bombs up, they seemed to stop and wait for a little bit. Then, they faded out of sight-"

"Dylan." Max said. She had come back successfully with Angel, and was now plotting with us outside the burning gates. Many people from inside Itex had come to put the fire out, but they were not very successful with it. Especially considering it was Greek fire and you can only put it out with sand.

"What else did Dylan do?" I asked Max,

"It's not what he did do. It is what he _can_ do. He has sight." I figured nothing wrong with him being able to see. Annabeth's eyes opened wide, and only her and Max seemed to register what sights alternate meaning was. Therefore, I did the dumb thing and asked what that meant. "It means he has the ability to see into the future, see far across the world, and see invisible things." Max answered.

"Crap." I said, realizing this was not working. "Do we go in and fight?" I turned to Annabeth who was now sitting in one of the chairs around the table we had set up. We were outside Itex, in a big plain with open land everywhere. There was a cliff on one end, the one were our cave was, but we now used the cave as a hospital were some Apollo campers, Dr. Martinez and Ella were waiting for battle injuries.

Down below the cliff was a small river, but it was so far down, it would take everything I had to pull it up to the surface. We never braced for what happened next. The wall crumbled down, and millions of monsters and other odd _things_ appeared and ran toward us. I had nothing planned for this.

"Charge!" I called, and we all attacked.

**Annabeth POV**

I grabbed my Yankees cap and knife and went in. I stabbed and slashed wildly. Monsters collapsed into dust everywhere. Everyone was working hard, but we seemed out numbered. A lot of the monsters went down really fast due to there limited training. Clones never lasted long.

They seemed to have cloned almost every monster. Fortunately, they had not gotten to things such as the Drakon and Cyclopes. Unfortunately, they _had_ gotten the _Draco __Aionius__. _Even though I thought it had died, there were still at least two of the giant lizards. Someone needed to deal with them _right now_. I thought I could take one down with Percy, who was already on his way over to it. One of them took a breather at the tent we had set up for strategizing, just in case something exactly like this happened. Good-bye to that plan.

I met up with Percy on the far side of the field. I was waiting for him command, but he walked right past me as if I was invisible. Then it hit me. I _was_ invisible. I took of my cap and put it under my arm, "Percy!" I called. "We need to take down the _Draco __Aionius_! We can't let it destroy anything else!" Not that there was much to destroy, other than our very limited supply of campers. He glanced over at it nervously.

"Alright, let's do the same thing we did with the Drakon last summer." I turned and began to run. There was a slight problem with this plan, I had not gotten _all_ of my memory back, and so last summer was a big, fuzzy blur.

"Percy!" I tried, but he was out of earshot. I had to assume what I was to do. Maybe I was going to distract it while Percy snuck around back and stabbed it. I put my cap on, I thought I would confuse it if I stabbed at him when he couldn't see me. I ran right in front of his face. Surprisingly, that's were Percy was too. I lunged at the monster and hit it in the eye. It shook its head fiercely and reared up on it's back legs. Percy seemed confused, I run under the underside of his body, and held my knife straight above my head. I had seen a spot I could hit him dead on. He flew down toward my knife. Percy lunged, he had the same as mine. Percy ran straight into me. We both fell to the ground, and the _Draco __Aionius_fell on top of us. He rolled over, his armor clanking on the ground, but his sword was out of reach. He had rolled right under the spot were the monster's over-sized foot would land. He noticed this, and held his hands above him, the monster flew down, and Percy's arms buckled as all the weight landed on him.

"No!" I cried, but Percy bared the cures of Achilles, I remembered this, and let him be. I heard a grunting noise, as Percy attempted to life the large foot up, then I heard a cry of pain. I stabbed the monster just as it tried to pull me out from under it. The whole thing burst into a column of dust, which came down slowly like snow. Percy lay on the ground inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"That," He exclaimed "is one heavy monster."

**Max POV**

When I saw Percy get smashed by the giant lizard, I though that he was a goner. When I was proved wrong, I thought maybe he had broken ribs of something. I rushed over to help Annabeth get him up.

"That was the most uncomfortable experience I've ever had." He said.

"Are you okay?" I asked quickly, I heard a loud explosion, and saw about three monsters go up in Greek fire. I saw Gazzy and Iggy slap a high five with a Hephaestus camper I'd learned was named Jake Mason. Percy then explained Achilles Curse. "Where's yours?" I asked. He looked at Annabeth.

"That, my friend, is disclosed information." He answered. It didn't bother me to bad, I could understand why that was a secret. It would be like giving a serial killer the keys to your house. We walked forward and Percy fell.

"You should get some rest." Annabeth concluded. I couldn't agree more. We put him in the first-aid tent. He handed me his pen/sword- currently in the shape of a pen- and said, "Watch Annabeth, make sure she doesn't do anything…" He motioned me in closer. "Stupid. You know her memory issue, not everything has fully clicked. Wake me if something bad happens." He fell asleep immediately.

**Percy POV**

In my dream, I was battling me. Four of me's. They all had my Achilles spot, and I found it easy to fight them. Sadly, they all knew about _my _Achilles spot. I was stabbed quickly by three different swords all at once, I fell to my knees, and I saw Max, she leaned over me, gripping my shoulder. "Percy," she said, "Annabeth, she's dying." She helped me up, and carried me over to Annabeth. The other me's didn't seem to bother her. My eyesight was spinning, but out of what little I could see, it looked as though something had fallen on her, crushing her skull, nearly killing her, and now she was drawing in her last breath.

"Annabeth!" I tried to say to her, "Annabeth, I love you! You can't leave me, Annabeth!" But I might have left her first, because I felt myself dying, until I did die.

"Percy," Max still seemed to be saying, "Annabeth's trying to kill you, I don't know what to do." This struck me as odd considering I was already dead, and so was Annabeth.

I opened my eyes.

"Wha- am I in Elysium?"

"Sorry, no." Max said. "But Annabeth is trying to kill a giant ewe, and she wanted to use your sword, so I let her. I hope that's okay."

"A giant _ewe_?" I asked, that seemed a little far out from 'trying to kill _you_.' "Yeah, its fine, but a _giant ewe_?" I was still a little amazed about them sending out an oversized sheep. It reminded me of Polyphemus, and his sheep, you know, the man-eating ones. Something awful occurred to me, I felt my pocket, and the sword returned.

"Annabeth!" I yelled, and threw the covers to the side. I shot out bed, but I got up _way_ to fast, and black splotches appeared everywhere. I shook my head and looked around, trying to see through the splotches dancing in my head. "Annabeth!" I called again. I was replied with a scream- defiantly Annabeth's. I hurried over in that direction, but found I was picked up off the ground. I pulled out my sword and swung above. My vision began clearing. It was Dylan carrying me, and he yelped in pain when I swung. I fell down fast, and something slightly tan fell with me. I had sliced off Dylan's _hands_.


	20. Chapter 20

-1**Max POV**

There was only monsters right now, nothing much I could handle without a sword. And the last time I checked, I wasn't a Sword Twirling Ninja, so I was pretty stumped. I mostly hung around the planning tent until a large lizard thing exploded it. I grabbed Angel and Nudge and ran. Gazzy and Iggy were hanging out with a camper that was helping them make dangerous explosives. They had successfully made exploding arrows that the Apollo cabin shot at the larger monster, about three out of four times, the monster would disintegrate or burn, _then_ disintegrate. Either way, they disintegrated.

We seemed to be winning. I saw Annabeth with a huge sheep, it seemed to gobble up a few Satyrs that had come earlier that day. She dodged it every time it snapped it's teeth at her, she seemed experienced, until it ate her knife, then she ran in terror. It was then that I remembered the sword Percy had given me before he fell asleep. I shouted, "Annabeth!" She looked over in my direction, and I threw the pen at her. So, obviously, I'm not a pitcher, so remind me that if I ever try out for a baseball team, because the pen flew way over her head, and she had to jump pretty high to catch it.

"Thanks!" She called as she grabbed the pen and regained her balance. Behind me, I heard a muffled scream. A lady with snake-like trunks instead of legs had grabbed Nudge by her shirt and put a slimy, ugly hand over her mouth.

"Nudge!" I screamed, and Angel turned as if she had noticed this for the first time. Angle just stood, and starred at the lady with intense eyes. She leaned forward, and the lady slowly took her hand away from Nudge's mouth. She released a scream, but the snake lady still held Nudge by the collar of her shirt. Angel took a mini stapler out of her purse, still starring at the lady, she clicked the stapler. A little silver staple fell out, she looked down in shock.

"Oops," she blushed a little and the snake lady backed away looking confused. "Wrong one." She said, and shuffled through her purse a little. This time she produced an orange mini stapler. When she clicked it, it expanded into a sword at least four feet long, almost as tall as her. What's with demigods and their office supplies turning into swords?

Angel approached the snake lady slowly, who dropped the screaming Nudge on the ground, and began to slither away quickly. Angel caught up easily. She slashed at the monster's unprotected back. It exploded, and showered us in a yellow powder. I scooped up Nudge. "Are you alright?" I asked her. She nodded her head weakly.

"She didn't do anything… serious." She said that as if something had happened. She collapsed over my shoulder and I saw it. A large gash in her back, and a knife still in it. The wound wasn't bleeding to bad yet, but enough for me to be concerned.

"I thought celestial bronze didn't hurt mortals!" I said, and examined the knife poking out of her back.

"Maybe it's not celestial bronze, then." Nudge gasped for breath, and choked a little.

"Either way," Angel began, "We need to get her to the Apollo campers. They can help."

"I thought they just shot bows and-"

"They also heal." She interrupted me. "Now let's go," she grabbed Nudge under the arm, and we pulled her over to the tent.

I saw Percy lying in a cot, and we could use that one, so I decided to wake him and tell him about Annabeth and the satyr-eating-sheep, which I guess would make them cannibals, eating other sheep, or goats. Even if they were only half goat, it was still odd.

"A giant sheep?" He asked a little unbelievably. His eyes widened. "And she's using my sword?" He felt his pocket and pulled out the pen. Oops, I thought, this could be bad. He raced out of the tent, I heard Annabeth scream, and then I saw Percy take flight, literally _in the air._ I saw Nudge was getting attended to, so I ran outside to see what was happening. The minute I stepped out, Percy landed on the ground next to me, blood on his back. He groaned, and pulled himself up. I noticed something he had landed on. They were _hands_. I looked up and saw Dylan, spitting on his wounds, and sealing them over, trying to stop the bleeding. He successfully covered one, and had a nice looking nub. The other one was still gushing blood down his arm. He flew out of sight, and Percy looked horrified. He shook it off, and ran to help Annabeth, who was running from a slobbering sheep.

Percy passed her, and ran under the sheep, stubbing his sword up in its heart. It collapsed one of him, and slowly flew to dust, leaving a nice looking sheep skin rug behind. He picked it up, it was obviously heavier than it looked. Annabeth helped him pull it into the tent; he threw it on the ground, and collapsed on it. The war outside sounded different, instead of the roars of hideous monsters, there was sounds of motors, and clanking metal, like sword on sword, or baseball bat's on refrigerators. I peeked outside the tent. Now there was a little something for everyone to fight. Clouds began to cover the sky, making the battle field a little more menacing.

"Percy, we have a problem."

**Fang POV**

What I assumed were demigods road onto the battle field, totally decked out in Greek armor riding horses with wings and snake feet, and those things newly discovered as Hellhounds, bounded everywhere. Brain-on-a-stick now had arms, and swords. They slashed through our lines, and seemed indestructible, until a clumsy Hellhound smashed one to bits, its glass box shattering under the large weight. Campers fell left and right and a cold wind blew in from the north. Even though we were pretty far north in Germany. It was about sixty degrees out, and average temperature, I assume, for Germany its self. But now the winds blew stronger, and the wind blew harder, making it feel maybe fifty five degrees. I shivered, and went to the first aid tent to tell Max. Apparently they could already hear, for at the instant I reached the tent, Annabeth, Max and Percy all barged out and stared in awe at the huge army.

"We have no chance." Percy squeaked out. "I've been in lots of situations, but we had back-up, now, this is it." Annabeth grabbed his hand. I looked at her, but her mind seemed three thousand miles apart, her already stormy gray eyes reflecting at the storm brewing from the north.

"We need more weapons." She said plainly. Still looking very far out she continued, "Max," she said, as she slammed back into reality. "Get Gazzy, Iggy and Jake. Fang, go check on Angel and Nudge, we can use them too. I'll go with Percy to the back wall, meet us there." She darted off into the middle of the field, no weapons. Just her and Percy. He pulled out is sword, and were they went, dust sprang up everywhere. I turned around to see Max had already gone, and I ran to get Nudge and Angel.

I met up with Max, but only with Angel. Nudge was in no condition to come with. We ran heroically off to the side, avoiding getting ourselves killed. We spotted Percy and Annabeth. Percy was doubled over, catching his breath. Annabeth had a comforting hand on his shoulder. I glanced at Fang, and he grabbed my hand, We broke into a fly and flew quickly to their sides. Annabeth told us the plan, and we followed. I grabbed her under the arms and heisted her over the wall. Fang did the same for Percy, and everyone else flew over by themselves. What we saw inside was tragic. Some of the campers were inside, and most of the wall was blackened by the fire, which continued to burn, even if it had nothing _to_ burn.

"Greek fire." Annabeth said, and sprinted by the side of the wall, avoiding the fire. Thalia was waiting by a window, and she pried it open when we came in sight. We slipped into a large room, inside were anvils and large hammers. Lots of clay pots lined the wall. She handed us each a large bag. Mine had bubble wrap in it. "Get the jars," she said, "and _do not_ break them unless I tell you otherwise." Her and Percy gathered swords, and other armor.

A hole in the wall spit a knife into a large tub of swords. Annabeth ran over and grabbed the knife. "This is mine…" She trailed off. "This is getting weirder all the time." She shook her head and sheathed her knife. The door of the room burst down, and five Percy duplicates ran into the room, wielding swords.

"No," He said, obviously panicked. "My dream, no!" He grabbed a jar of Greek fire and threw it at the Percys. They walked through it fearlessly. He pushed Annabeth behind him. She looked around, panicked, "Percy, what's-"

"Everyone have a weapon." He said, but it wasn't a question it was a demand. "Aim for the-" he faltered and looked around the room. He had to be able to tell us were to kill them, but that was also his Achilles spot so Max had said. "Small of the back." His knees buckled, and Annabeth caught him, she looked at me.

"Grab a weapon." We all charged at the Percys. They weren't wearing the same thing as Percy, which was good. But they were wearing old fashion leather stripped skirts. I swung at Cloned Percy's exposed leg. The blade bounced off harmlessly, but it made him loose balance. I kicked the back of his knees, and he fell forward I stabbed his back, and he yelled in terror, probably from the pain he was in. He slowly died on the floor. I looked over at the real Percy. He was starring at his cloned self in horror, watching how he would die. This was probably the most scared he had been in his whole life. He just stood there, frozen, defenseless, watching how much pain he would be in when he died. I couldn't imagine that being too much fun…

**Percy POV**

I was practically watching myself die. It was horrifying. I went blank, I could barely remember what my name was until Annabeth snapped me back into reality, "Percy, it'll be fine." She grabbed my hand and kissed me on the cheek. She charged and went to kill some more me's. What a great girlfriend, going off to battle me for me. I drew Riptide out of my pocket, and jabbed Cloned Percy II in the back while he was distracted fighting Max. I quickly turned around and pressed up against a wall, I needed a back guard. I grabbed the nearest fighter that happened to be Angel. She had recently been diagnosed as a demigod, but it was still unknown whose child she was. "I need you to watch my back."

"Sure," she said, but being only seven years old, I didn't think she truly got it. "We've all got each other's backs!"

"No, I literally need you to stay glued to my back, and take out the other me's when they come up behind me." I explained, and could feel myself getting a tad angry. The room was getting really hot from the Greek fire, and I started to sweat. We needed to get out of here. I figured they were after me anyway, so they would follow me out, giving the others time to leave the room. There was only three of me's left, and we seemed to be loosing against them. "Change of plans," I said to the confused-looking Angel. I peered around the room for something close to the door and high up to stand on and jump over the fire. I saw Jake, Gazzy and Iggy in one corner of the room, working on a bomb, which I suppose wouldn't help much. I found a table, almost ready to be engulfed in flame. I jumped up on it.

"Hey!" I shouted as loud as I could, "If it's me you're looking for, come and get me!" They all turned, and lost guard. One of them mysteriously fell to the ground in pain. Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and pulled her knife out of the small of my/his back. Two remained. I jumped out of the room, and one of the two Percys followed and seized me. The other pulled Annabeth, Jake and Angel out. Angel's jeans caught on fire, and she tried unsuccessfully to pat them out. Jake, for some odd reason had sand in his pocket, so he struggled free of Cloned Percy III, and put the Greek fire out. Cloned Percy III grabbed his arm again, and we were all herded away from the burning room.

We were pulled into a chic office room with red walls, black furniture and large, dark brown leather recliner. "They're here." Cloned Percy III said, and threw us down. All of us sprawled on the floor and a huge body guard chained our wrists together, I was chained to Jake and Annabeth, Angel on the opposite side as me. We were thrown onto a set of four whirly chairs- also chained together. Jake pulled against his bonds, and pulled my wrist with it, causing me to fall forward on the whirly chair, and pull Annabeth to the side, falling sideways out of her chair. Angel nearly flipped over the back of her chair. After the guard got us all back in our chairs, I leaned over toward Jake, "let's not try to break free just yet."

"Omega, I'll talk to the oldest girl first." The huge guard- Omega- turned the chairs so Annabeth was facing the recliner. I craned my neck and saw him spin slowly, dramatically, and suspenseful in his chair. It was Dylan, my new worst enemy. "Annabeth, I used you. Please try to get over me." He said, arrogantly. I peered over at Annabeth who just stared at him in disbelief. Omega turned the chair again. And now Angel was facing him, I tried to turn more, but it was hard to see him. "Oh, sweet little Angel, I know you think you can fight, but you really can't, to young." He gestured with his head, and Omega spun the chair until Jake faced him. "I don't even know who you are…" Dylan trailed off. "I just told the Percys to take all the half-bloods." He gestured his head again. I was now directly in front of him, I looked for his hands, to see what had happened with them, but they were under a faded red blanket.

"Where are your hands?" I asked mockingly, but the others craned their necks to see what I was talking about. He glared at me, and then he sniffed and winked twice. A really short person walked into the room, I soon realized it was a baby. It held a knife, it crawled under the chairs, and I immediately knew what was coming. I felt the baby grab the back of my shirt, he pointed the knife right on my Achilles spot. Annabeth gasped and I saw a tear running down her cheek. It felt like my body had a million volts of electricity running up it. Like the time when Annabeth had taken that knife for me, and I had let her know where my Achilles spot was. I sat completely still.


	21. Chapter 21

-1**Percy POV**

"I don't suppose you want to say anything offensive. It may cost you your life. Not like I'm going to let you live anyway, I just want to let you know how much misery I'm in, so the next time we see each other in the Fields of Punishment, you can feel guilty." He pulled his… Salad tongs? His new hands were _salad tongs_. I would have burst out laughing had I not had a baby holding a knife to my back. "You want to _why_ my hands are like this?" He stood and grabbed the collar of my shirt, which felt odd, and had a very weak grip with his salad tongs. I don't know how long it would take me to get over the fact that _his hands were __**salad tongs**_. "Because we used up all of the injections on stupid demigod warriors like _you. _Of course, this _is_ temporary, it just takes some time to grow whole hands back. If I had had an injection like the others, they would _already be BACK!_" He spit with his words, then he kicked the base of my chair, and it rolled away slightly, and knocked the baby over, it began to cry, and it crawled away, leaving the knife. It stood and hugged Dylan's leg. He looked down at it like it was a frog or something. He picked it up by the back of it's shirt, and handed it to Omega, who probably could have crushed it. But he just set it outside the door. I saw a familiar old lady walk by, but I couldn't place her. Omega pulled out some Germ-Ex for Dylan and himself. I found it odd to watch him spread the Germ-Ex over his… alright here it goes, _salad tongs._ I slouched, and crossed my legs in front of me.

"You think we can't replace that baby, Perseus Jackson? You are wrong, don't get to comfortable."

"Oh, I wasn't. We won't be here long anyway." I said sarcastically.

"I'll tell you how long you're going to be here!" He snapped at my, and I could tell he wanted to just kill me now and get the whole thing over with. But strange enough, he didn't. Which meant he needed information from me or something.

"What do you want from us?" I asked him, but he just stared blankly into my skull.

"It's not from _us._" He inhaled slowly, and let it out again. "It's just _you._" He fell into his chair, then rolled his eyes. Now he was talking to someone else, as if listening through a commons unit. He stiffened, and clapped his salad tong hands. Omega rolled us to the other side of the room, he tried to shove all for chairs into the unlit fire place, but we didn't all fit. He sent Jake and I in first, then pressed a button. Something dark shut over the opening, and we started to go down. Really far down. The fireplace came to an abrupt stop, and the covering came out. The fireplace seemed to tip, and we rolled out into a really large cell. But it was kind of nice, in that, I might die here in this cell with a vase of flowers in it way. The door behind us closed, and I could see the wall shake as it went back up.

"Okay, _that_, was officially the coolest elevator _ever_!" Jake said, and with our free hands, we untied the chairs, and stood up. Our hands were still chained together, but we couldn't do anything about that until my sword came back to me. Then it came back to me. I pulled it out, and struggled to take the cap off. I held it up and smashed it against the chains, they didn't give away easily, it took a few tries. They girls still weren't down yet before we broke free, of each other. Still with a cuff around our wrists. I sat down on the chair.

"I wonder what he meant by _just you_…." Jake said.

"A lot of people want a lot of things, but I don't think Dylan wanted anything from me, I think the person talking to him in the commons unit wanted something from me. I don't think he's the master mind behind this. He's being controlled." Just then, the door opened and in slid Annabeth and Angel. We broke them free, and then discussed what had happened. There was a table in the room. There was no windows or spaces. Just a large cement block with a table and a vase of wilting flowers. There was a bed too, but none of us would sleep well in this oxygen lacking room. Annabeth had the same conclusion that Jake and I discussed. I crossed my arms on the table, and laid my head on them. Before I new it, I had fallen asleep.

I could here murmurs, they were talking about how to get out, and what oxygen we would have and for how much longer. But I could barely hold my head up. When I awoke, I saw Annabeth and Angel sharing the bed, and Jake had spread the whirly chairs out in a line and was attempting sleep on them. The room wasn't much different, the flowers from the vase had been stuck in a hole in the wall. I silently moved the desk over to them, and pulled them out, the end was wet. There was water in the hole. I could feel a breeze coming from the hole. I instantly knew how far down we were. I remembered there being water at the bottom of the gorge, and how far down we had traveled to get to this secret underground room. I woke everyone up. Annabeth's hair looked like a cat had played with it like yarn, but to me, she was still beautiful. And Jake was crouched over like an old man from his uncomfortable sleeping experience.

"Yes, Percy?" Annabeth said, trying to comb her hair down with her finger.

"We're getting out of here." I answered, and then explained.

"Oh, yeah. We saw the hole, so I took the flowers and shoved them in there, you know. To test for water… And oxygen." She took in a deep breath, but it was staggered. We _were _running out of oxygen, not very fast, but we were.

"Alright, everyone, hold your breath, and then if we need it, I'll make an air bubble." I could feel a tug in my gut, and water began poring through the hole, at first just like a sink, then like a gutter, and then like a geyser. The water was almost to the top of the room, so I stopped the flow, and with every last piece of strength I had, and slammed the force against the wall. I almost slammed all my friends against the wall, but remembered they couldn't withstand the weight of the water like I could, and forced some of the water to try and make a box around them. There was a large _CRACK, _and if I had a guess, then it was about as loud as an airplane being snapped in half.

I drained some of the water out of the room. Annabeth and Jake burst from the water box, and swam to the top. I had forgotten to make an air bubble in the box! I turned to see Angel, but she was fine, breathing normally, I saw little bubbles sprout from her neck. Wow, they equipped those bird-kids with everything. The wall began to rumble, the same way it had when the elevator was coming down. I figured Omega was on his way to come and get us for the rest of our meeting. I tried to drain the water a little faster. I willed the water to pull Annabeth and Jake down, and sealed them in an air bubble. It made me a little uncomfortable, but I always said if I couldn't trust Annabeth, I couldn't trust anyone. I smashed the water against the wall once more, and a small hole formed. I began gushing more water out of it, the rumbling stopped, and more wall fell away until it was the size of a manhole cover. A head popped out.

"Jeez!" Nico called. "You're drowning us!"

"Who's _we_?" I asked.

"Thalia and I!" He said, and I saw Thalia behind him.

"Thalia!" I said, "How did you make it out?"

"Well, I waited by the window, and when they were making a mad grab for everybody, I slipped outside and got Nico. Then, we were captured." She said, as the last bit of water poured out. "When the water came through, we knew it was you, so Nico tried to help with the wall, but his power hasn't been working well with him recently."

"That explains the rumbling." I said. Annabeth, Angel and Jake joined me as the hole, and we all slipped though to Nico and Thalia's side.

"How'd you get thrown down here?" Angel asked as she surveyed the wall with Annabeth.

"The shoved us in a trash can, and I was dumped." Nico answered and rubbed his arm, as if remembering old pains.

"You were dumped, but you weren't even dating." Angel said sarcastically, and Thalia burst out laughing. I could help but laugh too, and Annabeth joined in shortly. Nico crossed his arms in protest, but we could tell he was fighting a smile. The wall rumbled, and we all quit.

"I didn't do that this time…" Nico said, and we all ran to once side of the room, our backs against the wall, mine more than everyone else's. I pulled out Riptide, but I was the only one with a weapon, everyone else had been disarmed.

"We still have our arms." Angel said, as if reading my mind.

"It means to have your weapon taken away. Can you read minds?"

"Yeah, for a while now I can also send messages to other people in their minds so I pick up a lot of neat information. Nico's jealous of your perfect relationship with Annabeth." She said, and I blushed. Nico was really red.

"You have no business saying that!" He snapped at her, she was a lot shorter than him, since she was so young, and he towered over her, starring her down Jake pulled him back, and he starred daggers at Angel. Annabeth shifted uncomfortably. I didn't even know Nico liked girls yet. He was still only twelve, maybe thirteen I wasn't sure when his birthday was. I was going into some deep thought, until Omega burst into the room.

"Well, Jackson, I see you tried to break." His sentences were formed better than the last time we'd talked.

"Not really…" I replied, and he stepped forward a little bit.

"Good, because we have lines and lines of cement cell."

"No you don't."

We all looked at Annabeth, and Omega stepped a lot closer to her.

"How much you want to bet?" Omega said. He was so close, his breath blew her wet hair.

"A lot."

"Like your life?" He moved his hand toward a sheathed knife, but I had a feeling it wouldn't stay sheathed for long. "Or how about, his life?" He drew the dagger, grabbed my hair, and pulled me so my back was to his knife. That was it, Annabeth's pride would get me killed. Plus, the fact that I had enough hair to get a solid grip on made me feel like I might need to cut it.

"How do you and Dylan even know were it is?" I strained against him pulling at my hair.

"We clone _you_ Percy. Or did you forget that? It took few tries, but we found it."

"Thanks," I muttered, but it was Annabeth's turn to speak.

"I would if I didn't care about him so much." She said.

"Lucky for me." I said sarcastically.

"He seems to be forgetting I could put his life on the line."

"She seems to be forgetting she already has!"

"You want me to take the bet?" She practically yelled at me.

"Ya! Then, I wouldn't have to put up with your stupid pri-"

"That's enough!" Thalia interrupted, Omega was watching us like we were his favorite Soap Opera. Annabeth fumed and Omega continually looked back and forth between all of us.

"You should of said that three sentences ago." I muttered.

"I said, _that's enough_." She reemphasized.

"Maybe you should have just quit talking instead, Percy!" Annabeth yelled, and it started all back up again. Maybe I was wrong, maybe we couldn't get through a conversation without strangling each other, even with Luke gone. I pulled free of Omega's grasp and we continued yelling at each other until we were both red in the face and nose to nose.

"Maybe I should have gone off with Luke! Then he could be alive, and you could be dead!" Annabeth said. Oh no, not Luke again.

"Maybe I should have accepted being a god, I'd be away from you!" I called in return. Her expression of anger turned into guilt and then pain. Omega had somehow pulled out a bag of popcorn, and was sitting on the floor, just watching us. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, and the same was going on for Annabeth.

"Annabeth I'm-"

"Don't." She said through tears. "Just don't say anything." She turned away, and stepped through the hole, sitting on the other side of the wall, were I couldn't see her.

"Way to go." Nico remarked.

"Hey! It's not my fault!"

"Ya, and I was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Percy, you totally started it." He turned at sat down next to the wall, starring intently at Angel, as if he was coming up with slow and very painful ways for her to die- which he probably was. I let out a slow and staggered breath, and walked toward the hole so I could talk to Annabeth.

"I wouldn't if I were-" Angle began, but I cut her off,

"I do a lot of things I shouldn't." Omega followed me, but I asked him to leave. So, as a compromise, he just stood and watched on the outside of the hole.

"Annabeth," I tried, but she wouldn't listen.

"Just go away, Percy." I like my name, don't get me wrong, I just like it better when Annabeth calls me _Seaweed Brain_. No one else but Annabeth, though.

I walked back to the hole, and sat next to it, just waiting, looking at Annabeth.

**Max POV**

After they were all taken, Gazzy, Fang, Iggy and I flew away, not wanting to risk getting taken and not being able to save everyone. I would have said friends, but I haven't known them very long. "Anyone have a plan?" Gazzy asked, as we flew over the battle scene. Itex had the upper hand. Iggy and Gazzy had wanted to drop some bombs, but it was to inter-mixed. With half bloods and the other good-guys mixed with the bad ones, we'd have to clear the battle field first. We would have dropped some inside the Itex building, but we didn't know were Angel, Percy, Jake and Annabeth were. I felt like there was nothing we could do. We finally landed by the drop-off to the cliff, and dangled our legs over the edge.

"There's always a-"

"Don't try that one." Iggy cut me off.

"But I do have o-"

"I think we all know you just say that all the time." This time it was Gazzy.

"Because there always is o-"

"No, there isn't." Fang surprised me by not being on my side. "We have no plans here. This is all very unfamiliar to all of us. Demigods, dragons, gods, et cetera. We don't know anything, and we certainly don't know enough."

"But there is a plan." I said in a small voice. "There's always a-"

"No there's not!" Everyone said in unison.

We sat in silence for a while, waiting.

"Now there's a pla-"

"Is there really, or are you just saying that?" Iggy interjected.

"Neither," I replied.

"So there is not a an is plan?" He asked.

"What?"

"There is not a an is plan." He said, as if we all should understand.

"Iggy," Gazzy interrupted, "even _I_ don't know what your talking about."

"Gazzy," Iggy replied, "even _I_ don't know what I'm talking about."

I groaned and fell forward, plummeting down the side of the cliff and snapping out my wings, barely missing a rock the jutted out of the side. I continued plummeting until I reached the river far below. Gazzy, Iggy and Fang were not far behind me when I noticed the river flowing in an un-riverly direction.

"Am I the only noticing the river flowing toward the rocks?" I asked, and we flew down and landed at the spot were it seemed to be flowing towards. A large hole was appearing in the rock as the water flowed inside. I looked at Fang.

"Percy."


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Short chapter! Prepare for the ending, it's coming soon!**

**Thalia POV**

We sat there and watched Omega finish his popcorn. Then he stood and brushed off his pants. His sword hit Percy in the head. "You didn't make this more interesting." He said and grabbed the back of his shirt, lifting him in the air. Omega dragged him over to Annabeth. He pulled a knife out of its sheath and showed it to Annabeth.

"My knife!" She said, and stood to get it. We all crowded around the mouth of the hole, not daring to go any further. As she reached for it, Omega hit her face with the back of his hand. The same one he was holding her knife in, and it grazed her cheek, leaving a long, red line all the way from the corner of her upper lip up her nose and in between her eyes. Percy pulled away, and tried to get the knife from his hand. Annabeth's face had begun bleeding badly. I jumped through the hole and began toward her, but Omega regained control over Percy and held the knife to his back. I didn't take another step.

"Just letting you know." Omega said, "he will be killed by your knife." His scary glare turned into a soft expression, and he turned sort of giddy. "This is like that episode of Days of Our Lives! Spoiler alert: Samantha did it!" He looked at all of us and smiled, as if this was information we wanted to know. He grunted and his face went back to a menacing grin. He pulled Percy away by the back of his shirt, pushing Percy in front of him. He stopped at the spot we came out of. And then it all happened when he let go of Percy's shirt to get the remote out of his pocket.

**Max POV**

The water then began pouring back out, spraying us in the face. And the wall eroded away even more. When all the water had settled, I walked into the room. It was full of wet swords, damaged helmets and broken dreams. Just the look of everything made it seem like so many people had given up here. These things were dated as far back as 1939. Back when World War II was going on. Fang walked up next to me as we looked through all of the stuff. He grabbed my hand. I found an old sword, still in it's sheath. I picked it up and buckled it to my waist. "I suggest we all do the same." I said, and we all did. Fang's sword was long, and, well, black. It was slightly dented, but still useful. Gazzy found a rusty brown one, sort of the color of poop. I figured that worked for him. Iggy found a very nice one, that looked like Percy's, only a little longer. It said it used to belong to a guy named Arnold Guestavian. It was shiny, and had no business being down here.

We even found a sword for Nudge. If she ever got better. I thought about everyone, and wondered how they felt about this.

"When we get Angel back," I said. "Well all fly outta here." I said, and Fang wiped a tear out of my eye, and put his arm around my waist. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Sounds good to me." Iggy said, but I could tell something wasn't right with him. Gazzy to, as if he liked it here, with all these _people. _I grabbed an old shield, as did the others, and we started chipping at the back of the wall, were the biggest hole was, we had to trade shields every once in a while, when our old one was to dented.

When we finally had made a hole big enough to crawl through, we saw Angel, Nico and Thalia all crowded around another hole. I made the executive decision to go in quietly, incase they had reasons. I had everyone else go in first. Just as I was about to go in, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. And who else should it be, but ter Borcht and his merry gang of pirates.

"Uh, you need our help." The lead pirate, known as Jack Sparrow whispered.

"Yes, we do."

"Lead the way." He said, and gestured with his sword to the hole. We all climbed in and saw Annabeth get hit. When Omega walked to the door, we pushed everyone out of the way, and climbed through Percy turned his head and saw us. He smiled and kicked Omega in the… were it counts. He doubled over and dropped the remote. Percy turned and grabbed the knife, and threw it to Annabeth. Who amazingly caught it by the handle, and smiled at Percy and then the rest of us. Percy pulled out his sword, and we all did as well. Even though I had no idea how to use one. Percy put Omega's throat to the tip of his sword, as the pirates held back his arms, and began to shackle them together.

"What's the code to the door?" He asked through his teeth. And put the remote in front of his face.

"Percy, we can just leave from the hole we made!" I interjected.

"Not if we want to win we can't." He glanced at Annabeth, who looked back proudly.

"Percy's right." She began, "Hitting a direct raid from the inside would be best."

"I'll die and never tell you." Omega said. "I'm protecting Dylan at all costs-" his word were staggered as he breathed heavily, and Percy pressed harder with his sword.

"Tell. Us." He spit out.

"Nev-" But Omega never finished his sentence, Jack Sparrow had stabbed him from behind.

"Who needed that sap." He said.

"We did, Jack!" I snapped.

"_Captain_! It's Captain Jack! How many times must we go over this?"

"Give me the remote," Annabeth said, and looked into the screen. "This ones a little to simple Percy. It says: Please scan finger." She raised her eyebrows, and picked up one of Omega's oversized fingers.

"_Access granted." _

The elevator opened, and we half of us stepped in. Waiting in Dylan's now empty lair for everyone else. "Annabeth," Percy started.

"It's fine. We were both wrong." She said, and grabbed his hand. I looked at Fang, and he took my hand. I smiled at him. He looked to the others.

"I have a score to settle with Dylan." He looked down at his sword. "I want to be the one to kill him." The elevator opened, and six gagging pirates stepped out of the dusty fireplace. We heard a gagging noise came from the closet. Percy looked at Annabeth, drew Riptide and walked toward it.

"Should I do it?" he asked, everyone shrugged, and he threw the door open. Dylan sat there, his face bloody, and his breath staggered. He was tied up, and bruised. "Fang, you may not be the only one, after him."


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Ah! Have any of you read ****Angel**** yet? My story is now so wrong! Oh well, last chapter! And then the Epilogue.**

**Percy POV**

We stared at Dylan. At his bleeding figure. I could see some of his wounds were healing on their own, the mortal looking ones, anyway. He had an arrow, just barley missing his heart, lodged in between two ribs. "Fang, you said you'd want to finish him…" I staggered backwards. Fang looked blankly toward Dylan, and pulled his sword out awkwardly.

"W-w-wait!" Dylan staggered out. "W-w-when I heal, I'll help you. I-I-I-if you help me."

"Likely!" Angel called from behind.

"I w-w-will!" Dylan tried. "I-I-I-I'll even tell you who's really in ch-ch-charge. She- she did thisss to me!" His speech was slurred as he talked, but he was so earnest, it was hard not to trust him. I looked harder, and remembered when he had kissed Annabeth. I tried to push that thought out of my head.

"Alright, tell us." I said.

"O-o-only if you untie me f-f-first." Dylan struggled to show us his bonds. I moved to untie them, but Annabeth grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait, this could be a trap." I pulled back, and she continued. "We will only untie you _after_ you tell us." He sighed heavily, and looked as if he was trying to clear his head.

"Alright." He took a shaky breath. "Itsss Brigid."

"Brigid?" Fang asked, and Max turned to him with a slight look of loathing.

"When Nico came and got me, Brigid was locked up with ter Blob and I."

"Hey!" The man I assumed was ter 'Blob' cried. "Iz Borcht, Bor-chet." He pronounced it slowly to himself for a while, and the rest of us discussed what to do.

"Where's her office?" Max asked.

"Jussss down the- the- corri-" His eyelids looked heavy, "Don't go geh- don't go near herr…" His eyelids closed. Annabeth moved in to inspect the arrow in his chest.

"Its poisoned." She said plainly, and stepped back. "Down the corridor, I suppose. That's probably what he was trying to say."

We walked to the door and pulled it open. Immediately, the sound proofed room was filled with the sounds of terrifying screams. I peered down the hallway, and saw something conspicuously ghastly. At the end of the hall was a snake-lady. Though, she wasn't quite like that. Her hair was filled with bugs, that writhed through her tangled hair. She was screaming horribly, and at times tearing her _eyes out._

A man came up to her, and the hallways emptied out. She was given an exceedingly long sword. It had to have been seven feet long at least.

"Lamia…" Annabeth said, "one of the oldest monsters in Greek mythology. She was never supposed to come back."

"What did she do?" I asked, as we backed into the room again.

"She was a pretty woman who had lots of kids with Zeus, but Hera being… _herself_, didn't like them. So she killed them in multiple different ways."

"Seems reasonable to me…" Max said and shrugged.

"Well it wasn't for Lamia, so Zeus gave her the ability to look into the future, so she could protect her children. Now she new how they would die. She began eating her children, and she could remove her own eyes. Then, she became a dracaena. So, practically, she just eats kids now."

"I would have never guessed. Brigid of all people…" Fang said. The guy didn't say much, so he kind of creeped me out when he did.

"I would have!" Max exclaimed. "Let's go kill us some female Chucky!" She began marching toward the door.

"No!" Angel grabbed her. "Did you not see the size of her sword? That thing was a monster!"

"Guys, where did Jack and the pirates go?" Nico asked.

"Oh no," we all ran to the door, and flung it open. Several pirate lay dead on the ground. Lamia's sword must have been like Luke's. That, or these were demi-god pirates. I stepped out of the room, and was hacked in the stomach by Lamia's sword. I flew across the room, and she starred at me closely.

"Ahhh, Persssius Jacksssson. I know all about you." She hissed and flung me over, but I rolled in time for her to give me another blow in the stomach. Her arm popped up. Nico threw his sword at her, and she caught it in her mouth, gagging she spit it out, along with mortal blood. I then realized what these freak scientists had done to her. She, at one point, had been an average person, but they had grafted her with Lamia. I looked over at the people still in the door, and I could tell at least some of them understood . Lamia made a mad grab for Nico.

"Ahh, ssssson of Hadessss. I hear my magic sssspellssss leave you powerlessss. How ssssweat." Her tongue flickered on his face as he squinted and pulled away.

"Let me go! You'll pay for this in the Underwor-" He never got to finish, Lamia squeezed him, and hard. Then threw him over her shoulder he hit a door, and landed limply, breathlessly. I was not going to take this from her, if she laid even a hand on anyone else… At that moment, the bird kids took to the ceiling, and it rained clanking metal. Lamia let out a mix between a lion roar and a hiss, "Who'sssss next?" That confused me. I looked for the bird kids, but they were gone. I looked over at the door were Jake and Annabeth were still standing, looking incredibly confused. Jake ran with a sword drawn, and Annabeth nodded at me, and held up two fingers. I nodded. A while back, she had taught me escape maneuvers. And that seemed like a pretty good priority right now. Number two was simple. Escape out the exit while one of us distracted. She nodded at me. I new I would be the distraction, except now Lamia/Brigid new were my Achilles' spot was, so I had to be careful.

After I charged it all seemed to be slow motion. Brigid whirled, but not on me. On Annabeth and Jake, who were picking a locked exit door. She grabbed Annabeth by the collar of her shirt.

"Put her down!" I yelled, and walked slowly toward Lamia, my sword extended.

"Oh," She stopped in her tracks then looked at the two of us. "A little romance?" She cackled, "I. Just. Love. _Un-happy. ENDINGS!" _With the word endings, she drew Annabeth's own knife, and jabbed it in Annabeth's heart. Annabeth gasped, and looked toward me, she tried to say something, but nothing came she just mouthed incomprehensible words. Her eyes glazed over, and I felt frozen. My heart beat slowed, and my knees buckled. Lamia slithered over to me, and dropped Annabeth by my side.

"Persssius, thissss isss your fault. Ssso only feel bad. It'sss not like you were the one who lossst her. Oh, wait, you were!" She laughed, "Ha-ha-ha! It's your fau-" She was cut short as she evaporated into dust, Jake stood behind, Annabeth's knife in hand.

"Look, Percy, maybe if we hurry, one of the Apollo campers-"

"No, she's gone." I dropped Riptide by my side. It was all I could do not to cry. I scooped her up, but my strength seemed weakened, and I fell to my knees.

If hearts can shatter like glass, then I suppose mine did. Annabeth lay there on the floor, limp and cold. Her chest was not rising and falling with breath, and her heart was not beating like it should. There was no blood running through her brilliant mind.

Something wet hit her face, and ran down her cheek. I thought maybe she had cried, that she was still alive, but realized it came from my own eyes. I had only known Annabeth for about four years, and had only been dating her for one year, but a feeling in my heart told me something. I loved her, even if she didn't love me back. I wished I had only told her that when I had the chance, because now, I would never get to talk to her again.

"Jake, let's go." He helped me get Annabeth, and we limped over to were Nico had been. But he wasn't there. Only a crevice in the floor. Suddenly, as if things couldn't get worse, the roof broke, and fell in. Above us stood the Huntresses and Artemis. It made me look for Thalia, but she had magically disappeared too. A large piece of debree hit my head, and even though I had the Achilles' curse, I was knocked unconscious. The last thing I saw was the Huntresses taking Annabeth's dead body, and Jake explaining to them what happened.


	24. Percy's Epilogue

Percy POV

Something was hitting my head, and I heard a voice, "Percy, Percy? Wake-up, you'll be late!" It was my mother's voice, I blinked a couple times. Then, realized I was on the floor in my room. I looked at the digital clock on my nightstand. It took me while, but I realized it said 12:04pm. Had it all been a dream? I looked at the covers around my body. I had fallen on the floor. "Paul, can you try to get in?" My head was hit even harder. I sat, bolt upright, and the door swung open.

"Oh, Percy!" My mother called as the hung some clean clothes in my closet, and then pulled out a nice pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt.

"Mom? What's today?"

She looked at me quizzically. "Come on Percy, Annabeth's last day of school is today, and you have thirty minutes to get there and get ready to go."

"She's alive?" I got to my feet, my eyes wide. I was still in pajamas.

"Last I knew, yes… Why, Percy? What happ-" I cut her off with a hug, and quickly dressed and brushed my hair.

I grabbed my wallet and rushed to the car, nearly getting a speeding ticket on the way there. When I pulled into her school parking lot, a couple girls walked past. School had obviously been let out. I ran into the building, avoiding the secretary. Things weren't much different than my dream, but I just kept going, I ran up the stairwell so I wouldn't have to wait for the elevator. I knocked on the door to Annabeth's room, then tried the handle. The door began to open, and I shoved it open the rest of the way. Annabeth stood in the doorway, completely ready to go.

"Percy, you're earl-" But I didn't let her finish I hugged her so hard, I didn't even realize I was tearing up, I felt so un-manly. But I didn't care, as long as Annabeth was still here. She pulled away, and kissed my cheek. "I guess we had the same dream then." She said, and gave me a large smile.

"Annabeth, demi-god dreams-"

"Almost always come true." She finished for me.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter, we've got a date to get to!" She smiled at me, and I grabbed her luggage.

Okay, so maybe I didn't have the muscles I accumulated in my dream, and dropped the luggage down the stairs once or twice. Annabeth and I both laughed and ran after the toppling luggage. When we got to the second floor, and were on our way down to the first floor, we heard some giggling, two over familiar voices, I peeked around the corner, and there stood two girls, when we came out in front of them, the taller one stuck out her hand, and batted her eyelashes.

"Hi, I'm Susan."


End file.
